


Where the wild things are

by FeralFighter



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Feral Eren, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-07-26
Updated: 2013-12-23
Packaged: 2017-12-21 10:07:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 26,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/899050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FeralFighter/pseuds/FeralFighter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All they were here to do was find the missing Dr Yeager's research notes. No one would have expected to not only get attacked by a giant beast, but also be in custody of a boy who behaves more like a feral animal than a human being.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Why the hell do I feel so self conscious whenever I write fics for new fandoms? ;w; it feels so daunting...
> 
> Err...I dunno, I've just had this idea in my head for a while, so I thought I'd write it to get it out of my system. Can't exactly say If I'll continue it or not (I mean, I've gotten some of it planned out (and some already written down), but I don't know how well this'll go)

"Ah, So this is where Grisha Yeager was researching before he disappeared." Hanji commented in awe, as she explored the long since abandoned tree house. It had taken her and her research group weeks to find this tiny little research hideout that was smacked in a forest in the middle of bumfuck. Going around in circles, getting caught in erratic weather, and running into dangerous animals, it was worth it in the end as the woman scavenged around the dilapidated building.

One of her companions who came with her on today's expedition scowled as he placed a clean handkerchief over his nose and mouth. "This place is a fucking disgrace, so filthy."

"Suck it up Levi, Yeager disappeared about 14 years ago, so of course this place would be a sty."

Levi rolled his eyes as the woman flicked through a few old notebooks and journals, placing any that she deemed interesting or important into her satchel.

"There have been rumors about sightings of a giant monster around here, right?" Levi asked, glancing at the massive hole that was took up a whole wall and a good portion of the roof. Hanji let out a noise of confirmation of his question, "Think Yeager has something to do with it? He was working on developing a living weapon before he went missing."

"Maybe, maybe not, for all we know it's some big hoax like the Yettie or the Locke ness Monster. I hope not, I'd love to see it with my own eyes- Oh hey, a video camera!" Hanji chirped as she picked up the device. Obviously the camera was dead, and both the screen and lens were cracked, but the tape inside looked to be in good condition. Pocketing the tape, she rummaged through a few more drawers, finding more tapes that were labeled which she stored as many as she could into her bag. "Alright, I think we're good, time to head back to camp!"

"Good, I don't want to be in this dump much longer." Levi sniped, walking for the front door but paused as he heard something snap underneath his boot. Glancing down, he finds that he had stepped on an old photo frame. Picking up the broken object, he brushed away the dust that was obscuring the image with his gloved thumb.

It seemed to be a simple family photo. The familiar face of Dr. Yeager with a hand placed on what was clearly his wife. Admittedly, the woman was quite attractive, long brown hair tied in a lose ponytail and a warm smile, an infant who looked no older than a couple months calmly sleeping in his mothers arms.

Now that he actually bothered to look around, he found a broken crib in the corner, as well as a majority of the furniture was demolished as if the hut had previously been a war zone.

The male began thinking of the possibilities as to why the place was in the state it was in, 'What on earth happened here? Maybe an animal got inside...Could that monster rumor is true?'

"-o, yoohoo, Levi, ya coming?!" Hanji called out, already on the rope ladder as she waved enthusiastically with a dorky grin to get her friends attention, which succeeded to snap Levi out of his train of thought.

"Coming." Levi muttered quietly as he followed after the woman down, mounting his horse as he prepared to return to camp.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought I'd just post up the rest of what I had, and depending on how much of a response I get, I may be encouraged to continue. (Don't get me wrong, I'm not fishing for kudos, bookmarks and comments or anything, it's more along the line of 'is it worth my time to continue, or am I making an arse of myself and should just stop?')

"-again, the formula seems to have rebounded. All 3 test subjects were found dead within 5 hours of being injected with the serum" Dr Yeager explained on the screen, the mans hand covering the lens as he turned the camera to reveal 3 dead lab rats.

Hanji paused the video, bored out of her mind at the repetitiveness that has already been in 6 other tapes. The woman was starting to think that because there was no success or much improvement at all in his experiments, the man went into hiding out of embarrassment from all his failures. The notebook she was currently flicking through seemed to have the same useless information, leading the female to let out a frustrated sigh.

"Umm, Miss Hanji?" a voice called out, making the woman to turn her wheely chair around to find one of the rookies on the trip holding a mug of coffee out for her. The boy was short for his age, and pretty scrawny, but knowing from experience, Hanji was aware that the kid was as bright as they come (heck, they even have some pretty intelligent conversations over things most of the others couldn't even begin to wrap his head around).

"Ah, thank you Armin! I really need this." Hanji grinned as she grabbed the mug out of the others hand and took a sip from the hot beverage.

"Well, I can see you've been hard at work, and you haven't had a break since you got back 4 hours ago."

Hanji couldn't help but release a snort of amusement, "Woah man, has it already been that long?". The blond nodded as she took another swig of her coffee before placing the cup on her desk.

"Have you found anything yet?" Armin asked as he sat on one of the spare chairs in the tent.

"Other than Yeager decimating the rat population, nothing so far. Although he is considered a genius in the scientist community, at this rate I doubt we're going to find what we're looking for." Hanji sighed glumly.

"Oh...Mr Yeager was working on some kind of living weapon right? May I ask what he was specifically working on?"

"As expected, you're on the ball. We're not entirely sure yet, but we have suspicions that he was creating something to alter genes to create super soldiers for the military. That being said, it doesn't look like he's made much progress from what I've seen so far."

"I think you should take a break, I'm willing to look through some of the journals if you'd like?"

"Nah, it's fine. I might have a stretch and walk around for a bit though."

The woman stood up, stretching her arms and back to loosen her stiff muscles, followed by picking up her mug...or would have if she hadn't noticed a small ripple that seemed to pulse in the dark liquid. a few seconds passed before another ripple.

"...Armin, come here for a sec."

Armin stood up from his chair and made it over to his superior and glanced at the mug. "Sir, What am I meant to be looking at?"

His questioned was ignored as the woman stared intensely at the coffee. A ripple erupted from the drink, taking the youth by surprise.

Another ripple followed.

And another.

And another.

And another.

"I think I can hear something." Armin commented, as the ripples were becoming more frequent, and soon the faint thunderous sound could barely be heard from the distance, which was becoming louder and louder, to the point where whatever was causing the noise was very close.

Everything went still and quiet. A loud scream broke the silence, followed by a monstrous roar, causing the both of them to flinch and block their ears.

"W-what was that?!" Armin called out.

Within seconds, outside was beginning to sound like a battle field as the sounds of screams, shouts and roars, guns being fired, and heavy stomping. The two rushed out to see what was causing all the ruckus, not expecting what was out there.

Many soldiers were running around, with guns and blades in hand or trying to find a safe hiding place, blood and bodies scattered on the ground, but that wasn't what caught their attention. No, what caught their was the monstrous behemoth that was rampaging around the campsite.

Hanji just stood there, completely overwhelmed at the sight of the beast, eyes sparkling in excitement. 'It exists, it actually exists!'

Unlike his superior, Armin was paralyzed in complete terror; mind on the verge of shutting down at the carnage in front of him. "O-oh-oh god, what is that?!"

The giant let out another beastly roar, swiping his massive hand to swat at it's tiny attackers. A desperate cry for help snapped the blond back to reality as he saw one of his comrades in the giant's clutches and being raised to it's large mouth.

"I-its going to eat him...JEAN!"

The trapped male was screaming and thrashing about in a futile attempt to escape, tears welling up in his eyes as he was brought closer to his demise. A sudden flash was caught from the corner of his eye, and soon he could feel himself falling till he hit the ground with a large thud, still possessed by the massive hand that broke his fall. A pained roar erupted, as Jean glanced at the giant, who was now missing it's hand, it's wound producing steam.

"Jean, are you alright?" his savior, or the taller of the two asked, her blades coated in blood.

"Mikasa? Corporal Levi?...Yeah, I'm fi-WATCH OUT!"

The two quickly glanced at the incoming fist, and dodged out of the way. The two took the moment to amputate the other arm.

Or would have if Hanji didn't let out an unholy shriek. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! STOP! STOP!"

The two paused, Levi whipping his head in the woman's direction. "What the hell, are you fucking crazy?! We need to take this thing down now before we lose anymore men!"

"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA ON WHAT KIND OF DISCOVERY THIS IS?!" Hanji screamed back, throwing her arms in the giants direction to emphasis her point.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT US TO DO THEN?!"

At this moment, Hanji snapped into her serious mode, "Aim for the tendons in the heels, and cut the back of the knee's," she ordered Levi and Mikasa, "Anyone with guns, load them with tranquilizers. Everyone else, tend to the wounded or help tie it down! I want this thing alive!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can I just say how much I love Hanji? (Actually the entire female cast in SNK. This is the first series where I've loved EVERY single female!) I hope I did her justice ;w;


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm continuing this after all! and thank you to those who were encouraging me to continue :)   
> Finally got motivated to work on this after finishing off a YmirxChrista fanart last night, I think it would be fun to draw scenes for this actually (though I wouldn't know which scenes to draw up :p), but I tried that with one of my other fics, and no matter what I tried, I couldn't get the image up ;_; me and coding do NOT get along at all...  
> Oh well, I might even get another chapter up sometime tomorrow since I don't have class!...not promising anything, I'm just being optimistic

Taking down the giant went surprisingly well, and quick.

The beast had begun thrashing about, making it difficult for Levi and Mikasa to get near it's legs. With the help of the tranquilizers being shot, it's movements became dramatically sluggish and slow within minutes; giving the two the perfect opportunity to slice into it's thick flesh at it's heel, quickly followed by a strike to the back of the knees. From there the monster had collapsed to the ground and with hesitation, soldiers tied and strapped the beast down, shoving spears into it's limbs to bolt it to the ground. The giant surprisingly still had the energy to struggle against it's confines in a futile attempt of escape.

Currently Hanji was failing miserably to contain her excitement as she emitted a squeal while bouncing and clapping her hands like a child picking out a present on Christmas morning.

"Ahahaha! Look at it, it's so beautiful~!

Levi scoffed, " Your standard of beauty is horrifying, that thing is absolutely repellent."

"Don't say such thing's, you'll hurt it's feelings, and I bet you're just jealous that it makes you look like a flea with it's height." Hanji joked as she walked around the beast, completely ignoring the infuriated glare the short male was shooting at her. The female let out a hum as she pulled a small notepad out of her pant pocket, and a pen she liked to hide in her ponytail and began jotting notes. "Hmm, human based anatomy, assuming male due to body structure, lack of genitalia, Approximate height...roughly around 15 meters, Produces steam from injuries," Hanji placed a hand on it's leg, only to quickly remove it a second later, "Abnormally high body temperature, interesting."

Everyone watched the woman, apprehension in the air from watching the scientist being so close to the beast, which caused many of them to jump when she had an outburst

"WHAO! ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME!" she squawked as she flung herself onto the beast's arm, eyes focused on the hand that was slowly but noticeably growing back, "It's regenerating?!"

This piece of information startled the soldiers, some tightening their grip on their guns or blades as reassurance in case the giant managed to free itself.

The woman continued to walk around, jotting down notes until she was now face to face with her captive.

"Oi, aren't you getting a bit too close to that thing, you shitty woman?" Levi commented, making his way over to pull the crazy woman away.

"Oh hush, I wanna see if I can talk to it...Hello there, can you hear me?

Tired green eyes looked down at shining brown as the female caught it's attention, which made Hanji grin.

"Can you understand me?"

Nothing.

"Why did you wander into our camp?

Nothing, though it brought up a few murmurs from people behind her, mostly about how she phrased that question.

"Hanji, that thing is as smart as a stump, you're not getting anything out of it."

Hanji continued to ignore Levi, "Alright then, what are you?

This time, the giant responded. Bringing it's head closer by stretching it's neck out and opening it's mouth, Hanji was waiting in anticipation for a response, only to to let out a yip from being roughly yanked back a split second before it clamped it's jaw closed with an audible chomp. Those with guns decided to act, by shooting more tranquilizers at it's face.

"Are you trying to get yourself killed?!" Levi seethed as he let go of the frazzled woman's shirt.

"He...he just tried to eat me..."

Levi just rolled his eyes, "Thank you captain obvious."

"A-...Alright, subject appears to be carnivorous." Hanji scribbled down, getting a look of disbelief from the shorter male from the fact that she almost got eaten, and just continued writing notes instead of being terrified like a sane person would.

"Sir! are you alright?" Armin called out as he pushed his way through the crowed and ran towards the two.

"Haha, yeah I'm fine, just a little spooked is all. Be careful Armin, I don't want you getting to-" Hanji glanced back at the giant, seeing it's entire body being consumed with steam, easily making out it's silhouette that seemed to be decomposing. "Huh?...NOOOOOOOOO! WHAT'S IT DOING?! WHY'S IT DOING THAT?! WHAT DID YOU GUYS DO?!" the woman shrieked, hand's flying to her head and messing up her already messy hair as she proceeded to have a panic attack.

Everyone (who wasn't being distracted by Hanji's conniption fit) just watched in awe as the giant monster produced steam, and watching it deteriorate and shrink in size until only a a tiny mound was left.

Hanji bolted towards the mound, hoping to collect any remains if possible before it disappeared completely. When she was able to see through the steam, she was rather taken back at what was left behind.

Ridiculously long, disgustingly oily, ratty, brown hair, with mangy long nails to match. It's naked body was incredibly thin and frail (clearly malnourished), and when Hanji picked it up, still feeling the high body temperature radiating, she noticed large clumps of scar tissue surrounding it's closed eyes.

Armin, seemingly appearing out of nowhere (When in fact, Hanji was too distracted to realize him following) was peering cautiously, but curiously over her shoulder.

"Miss Hanji, what is that?"

"It...It's a kid?"


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well what do ya know, I actually kept my word!  
> This is a rare and scary moment :'D
> 
> I'm honestly surprised I actually got all this done today, it usually takes me longer than this...*coughcoughiseasilydistractedcoughcough*
> 
> Also, you have no idea how much I keep grinning when you guys, and those on FF.net say how much you like how I write Hanji, I'm literally borderlineing the Joker here. I think it's because we're similar, we're both pretty...eccentric, though she's smart while I'm an utter moron XD

"How's the little guy doing Petra?" Hanji asked as she poked her head through the flap of the medical tent.

The strawberry blond haired woman looked over at the other, hands fiddling with the drips connected to the still unconscious boy. "He's doing fine at the moment, his fever has gone down, so he's sleeping easier."

Hanji made her way over for inspection, noting that the excess scar tissue around his eyes had disappeared. "Has he woken up yet?"

Petra shook her head, "He hasn't shown any signs of waking up."

"Jeez, he's been out for three days already...Well, I guess it makes it easier to get another blood sample."

Hanji proceeded to pull a needle out of her jacket pocket. Petra pulled the boy's arm out from under the blanket while watching as the other female used her teeth to remove the cap that covered the sharp point of the needle. The brunette carefully pushed the needle into the thin arm, drawing out as much blood as the needle would hold before removing it and placing the cap back on for safety.

"That should be plenty. You might wanna do something with those claws of his, I've got a feeling that someone's gonna lose an eye when he wakes up."

"Well, we already did his toenails so he can actually walk properly. It was kinda like trying to trim sheep feet, they were really tough to cut through, so I'm taking a break before doing his fingernails...I'm kinda surprised that Corporal Levi hasn't tried cleaning him yet.

A mischievous grin spit across Hanji's face, failing to hold back a giggle, "Yeah, about that; he was actually going to do that even when I told him to let the kid sleep, so I may have trashed the showers and toilets to keep him busy for a bit."

"You did what?! He's going to kill you when he's done."

"Ha! He'll never know, considering how most of the others here on this expedition are. Plus, it's fun to abuse his OCD." Hanji snorted.

Petra sighed, not even going to bother to continue the current topic. "So, did you find anything in the previous sample?"

"Sadly no, everything seems normal, and that's what's freaky. I'm 100% sure that the kid came out of the giant when the it disappeared, so I would have expected to find at least some form of mutation...Maybe I need better equipment, but that's not happening anytime soon while we're stationed here. I've also gotten some of the new recruits to help me file through Yeager's research notes, and I've been working them like dogs since I feel this has something to do with the doctor."

"I guess we'll just have to wait till we find something, or when the boy wakes up."

Hanji made a noise in agreement. "Well, I better head back, I think the kids need a break, and I need to figure out where the hell Sasha keeps her secret chocolate stash. I'll be back later tonight to check up on how he's going, see ya."

With a wave, the taller woman left the tent to head back to her duties. As soon as she passed through the flaps, she was assaulted by dirty water being thrown at her, taking her completely off guard. Looking in the direction the water came from, she found Levi holding an empty bucket with a ticked off expression.

"I heard every word you shitty woman." The shorter seethed.

Hanji just cracked a nervous smile.

"I'm going to kill you!" Levi proceeded to chuck the bucket at the woman's head, who barely dodged and screamed as she ran away, the diminutive corporal chasing after her.

Petra let out another sigh, hearing the debacle that was going on just outside the tent. "Well, may as well get back to cutting nails then." She muttered to herself as she picked up a pair of scissors.

 

"Still out huh?"

Petra nodded.

A whine was released as Hanji pouted, her patience was wearing thin and all she wanted to do was study the boy.

Levi just rolled his eyes.

"There's nothing we can do at the moment. Umm, could you stay and keep an eye on him for a bit, I still need to have tea."

"Of course! you should have said something earlier, I don't want you to starve yourself!"

With a thank you, Petra left the tent for food, leaving the still ticked off male, and the childish woman to keep surveillance. Time went on in awkward silence, only occasionally being interrupted when a few soldiers came in requesting pain killers for headaches. Surprisingly, it was Levi who finally cracked.

"...This brat smells like he's died and rotting."

"Heh, can't be worse than the stink in the showers and toilets." Hanji cracked out, only to earn a glare that said 'if you ever do that again, I'll stab you' from the other.

A tired moan was heard, making the two look over at the boy in the bed, who was finally stirring from his sleep. Hanji let out excited squeal before rushing towards the bed, Levi following slowly behind.

Drowsy turquoise eyes slowly opened, still disoriented with sleep. Once everything had become clear, Hanji pretty much had her face right up to his, startling the child.

"AHHHH! YOU'RE FINALLY AWAKE! NOW YOU CA-" the woman was cut off by being yanked back (yet again) by the shorter male.

"Jesus Christ, I'm pretty sure the brat doesn't want your ugly mug to be the first thing he see's when he wakes up." Levi sneered.

A animalistic growl started. Levi turned his attention back to the boy, only to be pushed to the ground with the child on top. Clawless hands gripped onto his shirt, teeth sunk into the older males arm that he threw into his face for protection. The boy began to viciously tug, trying to rip off the shirt and flesh caught between his teeth.

"WHOA!" Hanji shouted, watching as the child attempted to maul the corporal.

"DAMN'IT HANJI, SEDATE THE FUCKING BRAT!" Levi ordered, using his other arm to elbow his attacker in the face. The boy yelped in pain, his grip loosening, which gave Levi the chance to grab onto it's hair. With a rough pull and a kick, the boy was on the ground, thrashing and screaming as Levi pinned the boy down, a hand gripped harshly around the feral boys neck.

"DON'T KILL THE BOY!" Hanji snapped as she was turning the nurses office upside down until she found what she was looking for. Pulling the jar and needle out, she drew a safe amount into the needle before rushing over and injecting the liquid into the hostile boy's arm.

Within a few minutes the boy had stopped all actions, and just laid there limply with a doped up expression. Currently, he was as placid as a newborn kitten.

Hanji let out a sigh of relief, standing up to dispose of the used needle in her hand.

Levi pushed himself off the boy, glaring at his sleeve that had been torn and soaked up his blood. "Tsk, that rabid mutt needs to be muzzled."

"Honestly, I'm considering it. Just wow, I've never seen a kid act like that, and I've seen some really messed up kids." Picking the boy up, Hanji carefully placed the boy back on the bed, followed by pulling out two handcuffs and strapping both arms to the bed, and pulling the blanket over his body.

The boy let out a pitiful whine, wild eyes showing distress as he weakly tried to move his arms.

'Poor thing must be absolutely terrified.'

Leaving the boy be, Hanji began to tending Levi's wound, until Petra finally returned.

"Thanks for keeping an eye on thing guys, it's really-...Wh-what on earth happened while I was gone?!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot to mention this in the previous chapter (I always leave something out every time I got something to put in the authors notes!)
> 
> So apparently 'Hanji' is actually spelt 'Hange'...I'm a little torn because I respect the author of SNK (hence why I use Yeager instead of Jeager, and Levi instead of Rivaille...also because I didn't really form an attachment to them) but I still prefer to use Hanji because it just seems right
> 
> DAMN IT ALL TO HELL! PERSONAL PREFERENCE OR RESPECT AUTHOR, PERSONAL PREFERENCE OR RESPECT AUTHOR *continues spaz attack*


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why do I keep producing new chapters out of my arse at a rather quick speed? I'm usually rather slow
> 
> I've been meaning to have a chapter that involved the trainee group, I was going to have one with them for chapter 4, but it wasn't working so BAM!
> 
> Also, I've started posting this fic on my side Tumblr account, I'm going to do my usual system and post my updates there earlier than here or FF.net, so feel free to follow under feralfighter (you can find the link on my profile)
> 
> Alright, enough shameless self advertisement, feel free to throw bricks at me for that ;w;

"Urgh, that's it, I'm done! I can't deal with this anymore." Jean tossed the notebook with a groan before rubbing his temples. Everything he just read was too repetitive and there were scientific terms he couldn't understand. By the looks of it pretty much everyone, with the exception of Armin, Mikasa, Christa (who was being pestered by Ymir), Marco, and Berthold, who were still over going through notes that their Squad Leader asked them to assist with. Everyone else just seemed to have given up and began slacking off.

"I honestly can't blame you, it's like he writes the exact same thing in each of his journals." Marco sighed, closing the book and placing it in the pile of other journals that have been flicked through before joining the others.

"Sasha, where do you keep popping those out from?" Connie whined as he glanced at the delicious, sugary treat that was being devoured by the gluttonous female.

Jean cocked an eyebrow as he crossed his arms, "Yeah, where the hell do you keep stashing those? It's like you got a magic bag of unlimited food."

Sasha glanced back at the boys, giving them a cheeky grin, chocolate still coating her teeth, "Heheh, that's a secret."

Connie frowned, "Eww...How come you never share? you never seem to run out of them."

"You never asked!"

Mikasa sighed, placing her finished book onto the pile next to her. She glanced over at Armin, who was rather absorbed in the journal he was reading. Christa was scolding Ymir to leave her alone so she could keep working in peace. Berthold seemed to be struggling from the noise the others were making. 

Picking up the next book, a photo seemed to slip out, which she managed to grab before it could fall to the ground. She couldn't help but smile a little as she looked at a family photo, a tiny bit of home sickness kicked in as it reminded her of her parents back home.

"Hello everyone! How is everyone going?" Hanji chirped as she pranced into the tent, seeming more chipper than usual. Mikasa slipped the photo back into the book before standing up from the bench she was sitting on.

Reiner grunted, "I mean no disrespect Squad Leader, but why are we doing this? Shouldn't this be your responsibility?"

"Cut me some slack, I've got a lot on my plate, and at least I'm giving you something to do, otherwise you'd all be lollygagging about everyday until we've been ordered to head back. Speaking of which, are any of you good with animals?"

The teens looked at each other with confused looks from the random question, though Sasha was the one to hold her hand up.

"Sasha?"

"Well, My dad's a farmer, and my mum's a vet nurse, so I've picked up a few things."

"How are you with wild animals?"

"Umm, pretty good, we've tamed a few stray cats and dogs before."

Hanji clapped her hands in delight, "Excellent! Wait here for a sec, I need to bring something in that I need your help with." With a grin, the woman exited the tent.

Everyone was confused, staying awkwardly quiet. The sound of a truck was coming closer, and they could hear the scientist shouting, at the driver they presume; Hanji returned, stepping backwards as she kept telling the driver to 'keep coming'. The back of the truck started to poke through the flaps of the tent, something large covered by tarp was on the tray.

"Alright Mike, turn a little bit to the left, there's enough space just over there."

The blond driver nodded as he kept reversing, following the others calls and hand jesters.

"Keep going, keep going...Just a bit more...A tiny bit further...WHOO!"

The truck stopped. Mike hopped out of the vehicle and went straight to untying the rope that strapped whatever was under the covering to the back.

Connie tilted his head in curiosity, "What on earth is that?"

"You'll see in a sec, first I need some of you to help get it off the back."

Connie, Reiner, Berthold, Mikasa, Jean, and Annie nodded as they walked over to the object to assist Mike. Grabbing hold of the bottom, the cadets realized that under the tarp was a cage, which had been padded with blankets and a mattress for whatever was inside. Using their strength, they were able to lift it until Jean let out a shout and let go of the cage.

"Fucking- Something just grabbed me!" Jean cried, rubbing his wrist with his hand.

Hanji snorted, "It's fine Kirschtein, he can't do any harm in there. Now be careful, there's precious and fragile cargo in there!"

Taking a deep breath, Jean grabbed onto the cage again and continued to move it off the the tray and onto the ground as carefully as they could.

"So what exactly is in here?" Annie finally spoke, not actually looking all that interested in what's confined inside the barred prison.

"Well, Armin already knows about this, but remember a few days ago when the giant attacked?" The teens nodded. "Well, when it disappeared it left behind a rather interesting specimen. I decided to name him Titan." Hanji marched over to the cage and pulled off the tarp, revealing a stark naked boy, with his long ratty brown hair with a muzzle strapped to his face. He looked like he was going to keel over at any minute.

"...I can't tell if I'm more bothered that there's a dying kid that isn't wearing any clothes or that you've put a dog muzzle on him." Ymir quipped, placing her hand over Christa's eyes, only to have it slapped away in annoyance.

The woman laughed nervously, "Well, there was a bit of an incident the other day, so we had to put it on for safety reasons...He'scompletelyferal." Hanji muttered the last part, relieved that the kids didn't seem to catch it and just gave her a confused look. "Anyways, Sasha, I had to ask about the animal thing because we can't seem to get Titan to eat, I was wondering if you could try anything."

"Uhh...yeah, I could give it a shot, but it's a human, shouldn't he be able to feed himself?"

Hanji groaned, "It's a long story, I'll explain later. Please, just get him to eat, I don't want the poor thing to starve to death, it's really important."

"Aright." Sasha came to the front of the cage, unhooking the latch at the top and slid the entrance of the cage open. As soon as she walked in, she slid it closed as a precaution and edged closer to the boy, grabbing a blanket that laid on top of the mattress. Titan seemed to notice the intruder, so he pushed up onto all fours and let out a weak growl.

The others watched in interest as Sasha didn't seemed phased by the pathetic threat that came from the near skeletal boy, and as soon as she was close enough, she ducked down and quickly wrapped the blanket around his body tightly, turning his body around so that his back was resting against her, one arm wrapped around him to hold him down.

Titan then began to thrash about in the blanket, snarling at the girl who was removing the muzzle before giving a light smack to the nose which halted his actions.

"Bad!"

Another growl was emitted, which only earned him another smack.

The girl then reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a biscuit and placed it in front of his nose to smell. Titan just turned his face around, refusing to take the treat.

Sasha paused for a moment, removing the arm that was hugging the boys body to to give his hair a rough tug. Titan let out a yelp, mouth opened long enough for the female to cram the biscuit into his mouth. The boy was still for a bit before he began chewing and swallowed. Sasha pulled out two biscuit that Titan was eager to eat out of her hand.

"AHH! SASHA! YOU'VE GOT TITAN EATING!" Hanji squealed, incredibly happy to finally have her specimen eating.

Sasha glanced at the woman while Titan was licking the crumbs from her hand, but quickly removed it away as soon as she saw that he looked like he was going to take a bite out of her hand. "It's not that hard, it's just like trying to give a dog a worming tablet. Can someone grab him some proper food? I've just ran out of snacks."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...I think I just turned Eren into a dog :'D oh god


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Somehow, this came out longer than expected :'D
> 
> I would have posted this last night, but internet ran out...Kinda wish that living in an accommodation that homes several uni students would be kind enough to at least give us free wifi, we already pay a fortune just to stay here, and we have to pay to do our laundry too...*sigh* to my younger readers, if you ever plan to go to uni/college, I recommend taking a gap year to earn money, you can NEVER have enough money while being a poor uni student!

"Naw, just look at you Titan! You look so cute being all tuckered out with you're food baby, so precious!" Hanji cooed at the sleeping boy with the bulging belly, using a tone one would use to talk to an infant. She's really going to need to repay Sasha for getting him to eat...Probably allowing her to have seconds for dessert will be enough to make that girl happy.

Levi rolled his eyes, "If I knew you'd be this clucky, I wouldn't have bothered bringing you coffee."

"At least I can drink coffee Mr 'I can only drink tea because caffeine makes me hyper'." Hanji snapped back, earning a sneer from the other.

"When the hell do you plan to clean the mongrel? The brat's already got grime on the sheets, and his hair's leaving him wool blind, cut it." The corporal leered at the sleeping form. The boy let out a yawn as he stirred around to get comfy in his sleep, eventually finding a position that gave the two adults a rather graphic view. "Why the hell haven't you given him pants?!"

"What? He's not toilet trained, and it's not like we conveniently carry nappies around."

Levi was about to make a quip but was cut off.

"Excuse me, Squad Leader?"

The two turned to see Mikasa entering the tent, a book in hand.

"Ahh, Ms Akerman, what can I do for you?"

Mikasa was quiet for a moment, glancing at the caged boy before speaking, "I'm just wondering if Dr Yeager had a family?"

Levi quirked an eyebrow at the Asian girl's question.

"Hmm...I think I recall hearing that he was married."

"Was there anything about him having any children?"

"Not to my knowledge, no. He was never the kind of man to let many know much of his personal life. Why do you ask?"

Mikasa opened the book, pulling out the photo that slipped out when she had picked it up earlier this morning and flashed it to her superiors. "I found this photo, and I just needed confirmation.

"Hmph, I found the exact same photo when we were at his dump of a research hideout."

"Wait, you found something like that? Why the hell didn't you tell me? That could have been really important evidence!" The offended expression Hanji pulled seemed like she was genuinely upset.

"It was a stupid family photo, I didn't think it was all that relevant to what we were after."

The woman looked like she was about to rip out her hair and scream in frustration.

"I also noticed that this journal is a more personal one, most of the contents seems like what a normal person would write in a diary . I haven't looked to much into it but I noticed that the journal ends rather abruptly."

"...What was the date of the last entry?"

Mikasa opened the book and went to the last page that contained writing, " April 24th 1999."

Hanji walked over to her bench, shuffling through all the tapes that were scattered around, "I'm not finding any of them labeled with a date nea-" Hanji paused, realization buzzed and she smacked herself in the side of the head, "The tape I found in the video camera, duh!" The woman laughed at herself as she picked up the unlabeled tape, placing it into the player and pressed the rewind button.

"You're an idiot, why didn't you just look at this tape to begin with?"

"It's called going in order! Despite the mind numbing repetitiveness, it show's the progress, changes and improvements to the formula, and when you have something that's in an order, you don't just watch the third one and then the first tape! That's like reading the Tomorrow series backwards!"

"Must you shout everything? You sound like a squealing pig."

Hanji only retorted by sticking her tongue out.

Mikasa just watch the two bickering boredly, 'They argue like a married couple...'

Titan was still asleep, though he flinched slightly whenever Hanji got particularly high pitched and loud.

The machine clicked, indicating the tape had finished rewinding. The scientist was giggling in excitement as she pressed play, maybe they'll find the secrets behind Titan!

The very first thing that came out of the video was a pained scream, taking Hanji off guard, while the other two just stood there, unphased by the screaming. The hand that was blocking the screen finally moved and revealed-

"Holy shit, it's a child birth video!" Hanji cackled. Levi just watched in disgust, while Mikasa was just surprised, a child birth being one of the last things she would have expected. "Ah come on guys, child birth is a beautiful thing. Looks like it was done at the tree house" Hanji grinned as she pressed the fast forward button, pressing play as soon as it was deemed 'safe'.

"Do you like that Eren?" A woman's voice came from behind the screen as she filmed Grisha holding up a baby, approximately 2 months old, in a yellow tub. The baby was giggling and splashing his tiny arms in the water while father scooped water into his hand and carefully poured it onto the infants head.

"Next." Levi demanded.

Hanji complied.

the next scene was of the child a bit older, being spoon fed.

"Next."

The mother was placing the child in the crib, singing a lullaby.

"Next!"

They skipped through a few more scenes, not finding what they were after, and Levi was starting to become impatient.

"These don't seem to be going anywhere." Mikasa mumbled, looking a bit disappointed that her theory might not lead anywhere.

Hanji sighed, also rather disappointed from the lack or results, "Alright, we'll give it a few more tries, if not, we'll stop."

Still nothing seemed to come up, they were ready to stop if the current one they were watching didn't show anything.

Grisha was holding baby Eren as he sat at his lab table, a smile on his face. "Alright Eren, say hello to the camera."

The child just babbled as his father picked up his arm to wave it for him. it just seemed like another useless piece of film until the scientist's smile faded into a serious frown.

"I've been running low on funding. The military have cut me off, I'm out of test subjects, and I'm becoming desperate...I'm forced to go to my last resort." The man sighed as he sat Eren on the bench and reached into a drawer underneath the desk and came back up with a needle. "Alright Eren, can you hold an arm out for daddy?"

"He wouldn't...He wouldn't do that to his ow son, would he?" Hanji couldn't help but mutter as the three watched intently.

The infant raised an arm up, which his father held onto before inserting the needle into the arm and injecting the serum. Eren seemed like he was about to cry in discomfort, not seeming to enjoy having something poked into him, but settled down once Grisha ruffled his small mop of brown hair, telling him he was alright.

"I'm probably going to regret, none of the previous test subjects survived more than a few hours, but I'm willing to risk my son's life if it means for the greater good for humanity."

The tape cut off for a moment before a new scene appeared of Eren sleeping in his crib.

"It's been three days since I've injected Eren with the serum. Astonishingly, he seems to have survived, and there doesn't appear to be any reaction of any form yet. Carla is completely oblivious of Eren being my newest test subject, and hopefully it stays that way. I can't even begin to imagine what would happen if she found out."

The tape cut off again, this time it seemed to be Eren's first birthday.

"Happy Birthday sweetie!" Mrs Yeager cooed as she kissed her child's cheek before placing him in his high chair. A small birthday cake was placed on the table with a single candle in the middle.

"Jeez, I'm officially convinced this ended up being a wild goose chase. I'm glad the kid survived, but it doesn't look like the experiment worked; Yeager's work is a flop." Hanji sighed, still watching the video, the heartwarming moment kinda took the sting out her disappointment.

Both parents sang happy birthday, followed my Mrs Yeager cutting the cake but ended up leaving the knife on the table as she seemed to have forgotten to grab the plates.

Eren, being highly curious, reached out for the knife that his mother had carelessly left within his reach. The child let out a squeal before bawling his eyes out after he had grabbed onto the blade and cut his hand. Both parents rushed over and inspecting the injury.

"Oh my god, Eren shhh shhh shhh, everything's okay." his mother comforted as she pulled him out of the chair and brought him to the sink to rinse the blood away from the injury, followed by his father who had grabbed a bottle of disinfectant, which he poured onto a piece of cloth and gently dabbed it onto the wound.

Eren let out another wail from the alcohol, but had settled down a bit once his hand was dressed in a bandage. His mother sat him back on his chair and gave his injured hand a kiss.

"I'm so sorry Eren, that was my fault. Shhh shhh shhh, you'll br alright sweetie. I hope you're still hungry for cake!"

Grisha was the one to serve out the cake, which the child was very eager to get his hands on.

And that's when it all went to hell.

Everything seemed to disappear from smoke that seemed to come out of nowhere, the sound of wood, metal, and tin being destroyed, followed by the sound of heavy, rumbling breathing and a woman's scream. When the smoke finally disappeared, half the house had been torn apart, both adults were paralyzed in fear at something that was out of the recorders sight.

"E-eren?" Dr Yeager choked out, completely stunned. A large hand had reached out and grabbed both adults, knocking the camera to the ground in the process at the perfect angle to see the exact same monster that had gone rampant at the campsite days ago. Both parents were screaming and struggling to escape the giants clutches, only to be dropped into it's enormous mouth, and be silenced with a sickening crunch as it's powerful jaw clamped shut, blood spurting out between his teeth. As soon as he swallowed, the giant turned and stomped off into the wild, leaving the camera to continue filming nothing but the massive chunk of the house that had been ripped off until the battery died.

The three were unable to speak, all they were physically capable to do at the moment was turn their heads to the soundly sleeping boy. They were now in possession of the first and only success of Dr Yeager's superhuman weapon project that took on the form of a child, and a monster.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have this horrible nagging feeling that I made Levi a bit too OOC, but then again, the situation is different because they've really just discovered the first titan, so I guess him being a bit shocked would be normal for him?
> 
> Then again, I also struggle with serious characters...I work better with more lively characters
> 
> *nervously eats jaffle and slinks away*


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> G'day folks!
> 
> Sorry for the delay (not that I actually have a set time to put these out), I've been busy with TAFE, and had a good time at Manifest over the weekend~ certainly the most eventful con yet since we had to evacuate the traders hall since the fire alarm went off, turned out to only be some dickhead who set off a smoke bomb (and even more idiots were coming into the building while were were meant to be getting out...the whole weekend seemed to have a bit of a problem with communication throughout the staff :\\)
> 
> Also managed to get myself a recon corp uniform~! Ended up buying the first one from the stall! and also my first cosplay!

After everything had finally absorbed in, Mikasa headed back to her fellow cadets at the tents, promising that their discovery is to be kept between the three until ordered otherwise, leaving the two adults alone to discuss.

"This doesn't make sense." Levi started with a huff, still glaring at the boy who had now woken up and tangled himself in the sheets.

"What aren't you getting?

"That the brat's even alive. If he was a giant monster the entire time, we would have known much earlier, it's hard to miss something like that in a jungle, so he clearly would have reverted back to a baby. Last time I checked, babies can't do squat at 1 other than eat, cry, make messes and shit themselves."

Hanji just plopped onto her wheely chair, cupping her chin as she thought of an explanation. "Hmm...Maybe he still gains the nutrition from what he eats when he's transforms."

"Possibly. He would have ran into other animals, so wouldn't they have killed him?"

"If you look at his behavior, I wouldn't be surprised if something took him in as a cub. This wouldn't be the first time something like this has happened, there have been other cases of feral children; some have been raised by dogs, wolves, monkeys, even birds."

"Is it possible to humanize him?"

The scientist let out a tired sigh, her expression becoming slightly depressed. "It is, but there will be a lot of complications. According to the journal entry, he'd be around 15, putting a pretty big gap between other wild kids, who were mostly under the age of 12 when they were found. He might be too far gone to teach him how to behave like a human or to even speak since a lot of the other cases struggled, and tend to hold onto their animalistic upbringing."

"Right...So what do we do with him now?"

"Well, I need to contact HQ to keep them updated on our progress. If I get in contact with either Ervin or Pixis, I'll inform them of Tita-I mean Eren, they're the only two in the higher ups I can really trust with his information. And since I don't want to leave the kid unsupervised for the time being, I guess you can give him a bath or something."

Hanji regretted her comment as soon as she saw the glint in the shorter mans eyes. Finally being able to wash the child who hasn't been clean for about 14 years who Levi had been forced to watch roll around in his own filth seemed like an early birthday present for him.

"Err...Levi?"

"I'll be back on a moment, I just need to grab a few things." Levi stated, leaving the tent to gather whatever it was he needed.

Hanji watched the other leave, then turned her attention to the caged boy who seemed to be loafing about, enjoying the luxury of a comfy mattress, and warm, soft blankets he managed to make a nest out of.

"Oh god, I'm so sorry Ti-err Eren." The woman cried, her pitch made Eren lift his head up and glance in her direction.

Levi returned, a large yellow tub in hand that was full of towels, hair products, soap, face washers and other objects, the most concerning object being the freaking machete that was sticking out from the top!

Hanji was about to question the weapon but Levi quickly dumped the tub on the ground and walked out of the tent, soon returning with buckets of cold water, and leaving again for hot water.

"Levi? What umm, what'cha gonna do with that machete?"

Levi leered at the woman with a bored expression, not bothering to answer her question as he removed the items from the tub and grabbed a needle out before headed over to the cage.

Eren, on seeing Levi approaching, let out a cat-like hiss in an attempt of intimidation. The corporal wasn't phased in the slightest, even when Eren decided to lash out and try to claw him through the bars of the cage and made more noises. Levi only responded with a snort before grabbing the boys arm tightly and injected the substance inside the needle. Within minutes, the boy calmed down significantly before dropping onto his butt in a daze, which made it easier for Levi to move the child out.

"Please tell me you're not gonna harm him." Hanji squeaked, earning the same bored leer.

"As long as he doesn't act up, he's fine." Levi stated as he dropped the kid in the tub with a loud thud and picked up the machete. Grasping onto the unkempt hair, Levi cut through the hair in one quick slash, leaving the ratty, almost black hair at a much more manageable length that was just above his boney shoulders.

Hanji sighed in relief that the machete was only used to cut the bulk of the disgusting mop of hair. An amused grin spread across her face when Levi pulled a face of disgust as he felt the texture of the hair, a couple insects and tiny clumps of dirt and dried mud fell as Levi disposed of the manky tresses to the side.

"Don't you have something important to do?"

"Right. I'll be back to check up once I'm done, so play nice." Hanji stated before heading out, leaving Levi to go about his business.

"Alright you filthy abomination, time to have a desperately needed bath." The male mumbled as he picked up one of the buckets filled with cold water, and dumped it onto the boy, who let out a whine in protest as soon as the cool liquid made contact with him. The tub began filling up with water, already murky from whatever grime that came from Eren's shivering body, which was trying pathetically to escape the tub. Levi then added the hot water, pouring it into the tub rather than burn the kid who was settling down once the freezing cold water began to heat up to a pleasant warmth.

Levi grabbed a bar of soap and rag, dunking both into the scummy water and began lathering the cloth with the soap. From there, Levi began scrubbing the cloth on Eren's left arm, becoming more vigorous when he wasn't getting enough dirt off. By the time the top of his arm was clean, the entire rag had become covered in black or dark brown from the filth. Tossing the material to the side, he grabbed another washer and repeated the process with his underarm, followed by the other arm, back, chest, neck, face (which was a 'lot of fun' when he was working on scrubbing the scum from behind the ears until Eren was whining and the skin became red and raw). Working on the lower half was a bit more of a struggle, the brat was thrashing about when he was pushed back and his head was coming close to the water, but he eventually was able to scrub the kids legs, butt, and private regions clean.

"Alright, time to change the water." Levi said to himself as he heaved the boy out of the tub and wrapped him in a towel in a way that he wouldn't have an easy time trying to get himself out of, especially since he was still under the influence of the sedative. Picking up the tub, the short male carried the tub outside, dumping the murky water at the tree near the back of the tent, and returning again, finding Eren sitting in the same spot he had left him, though weakly wriggling around in the towel.

Pouring clean water into the tub again, Levi unwrapped Eren from the towel and pushed him back into the bath so he could get started on the hair.

Grabbing the back of the kid's head, Levi dunked Eren's head under the water more roughly than intended, and tried to get the water to soak into the hair before bringing the head up for air. Eren gasped as he was finally able to breathe, followed by violent coughing and hacking, vomiting some of the water he inhaled. Eventually he caught his breath again, only to be dunked again but pulled up just as quick.

Picking up the shampoo, Levi squeezed out a lot more than necessary amount of the product before lathering it into the boys hair. The corporal scowled as he could still feel how much mud was clumped into the hair, chunks of clay was chipping off and falling into the tub, along with twigs, leaves, insects, and even a couple spiders.

"Well well, look how handsome you are now that we can get a proper look at your face." Hanji sang as soon as she had waltzed into the tent, her usual cheesy grin stretched along her face as she made her way over the the two males.

"So, how'd it go?" Levi asked boredom, still keeping most of his attention on the hair that he managed to pull a handful of mud out of.

" Yeah, it went alright. I got in contact with Irvin; he said he'd come down in a week or two just to see how things are going and to take a look at Eren. If all goes well, we might be heading back home pretty soon after."

"Thank god, I'm sick of this hellhole...god damn it, can you hold him still for a second."

Hanji complied to the request, grabbing onto the ridiculously thin shoulders as Levi grabbed a comb from his little pile and using it to tug into the hair.

"Fucking knots!" Levi snapped as he was tugging the plastic harshly until he was able to rip through it, which earned him a loud yelp and whimpering.

Once getting the worst of the knots out of the way (some even being bad enough that they had to be cut out), he proceeded to rinse the shampoo out, being a lot more gentle since Hanji was around. In doing so was difficult as they decided to have the boy lean back, which resulted in thrashing in protest, much like when Levi was washing his legs.

Once the task was done, the conditioner was lathered into the mop of a much cleaner and natural brown, comb brushing through it again just to get whatever knots and inhabitants out till it was nice and smooth, which was followed by another rinse and finally back into the towels to dry.

"Satisfied?" Hanji questioned as she was drying Erens mop with a towel as he sat on her chair, snugly wrapped in another towel.

"Much."

"Heheh, he certainly looks better now that he's squeaky clean."

Levi rolled his eyes, "So what's going to happen now? I don't particularly like the little shit, but I'm not overly fond of having a kid being used as a lab rat, especially since we don't know what triggers him to turn into a giant."

"...I honestly don't know. I mean, this is a massive breakthrough for science, but I don't want to have him cooped up in a cage in a lab just to be experimented on for the rest of his life." Hanji paused as she removed the towel, brown hair all fluffy and sticking out everywhere. Eren yawned as he curled himself up into a ball and begun to doze off just as she grabbed the hair brush to flatten the hair down and picked up the scissors to style it. " I'd love to see him to live like a normal kid...which is impossible."

With a warm smile, Hanji finished cutting and picked Eren up to carry him over to the cage, which he snuggled into his bed as soon as he hit the mattress.

"Just seeing him with a loving family and just learning how to talk and do even small menial things like using a knife and fork would make me happy."

Levi looked at the woman as he picked up the tub to dump the rest of the water "Such fantasies will never exist for him, he's just going to be a guinea pig and be used as a weapon for war...Can you help pick up those?"

"...Yeah." With a depressed sigh, Hanji left the cage, not bothering to put the muzzle on the sleeping boy, and locked the cage before picking up the hair products and the dirty rags. She had a feeling she was going to be in a miserable mood for the rest of the day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter isn't overly interesting, shit happens though.
> 
> So to make up for it, a silly little Omake! I wanted to put this somewhere in the fic, but I don't think I'd be able to get it in XD so bonus
> 
>  
> 
> *~*OMAKE*~*
> 
> "Oh-OH GOD!" Hanji cried as she buried her face in her hands, body shaking from her sobs.
> 
> "Why the hell are you crying, shitty woman?"
> 
> "He's a murderer, Levi!"
> 
> "Who?"
> 
> "EREN! Sweet precious Eren is a cold blooded murderer!"
> 
> The male's eyes widened slightly at the news.
> 
> "Wait, what? what happened?"
> 
> Hanji pulled her face away from her hands, tears still pouring and snot dribbling from her nose. Levi scowled at her current unattractive appearance.
> 
> "S-so I thought Eren was lo-looking a bit lonely, seeing that-that he's not used to interacting with humans. I decided that maybe he-he'd find comfort with animals, so I decided he could play with Sonny and Bean."
> 
> "You mean your mice?"
> 
> Hanji nodded with a sniff. "Anyways, it seemed to be going well, Eren s-seemed to be enjoying their company...and then it happened."
> 
> "Oh God." Levi sighed as he slapped his hand against his face, already knowing where this story was going.
> 
> "Eren had Sonny in his palm, seeming pretty happy, and THEN HE CRUSHED HIM IN HIS HAND!"
> 
> "Hanji-"
> 
> "And that's not all! He grabbed Bean, and then he...oh god." Hanji covered her mouth, not wanting to remember the horrible memory.
> 
> "Hanji, you-"
> 
> "And then Eren bit Beans head off! HE FRIGGIN BIT AND RIPPED POOR BEANS HEAD RIGHT OFF!" Hanji basically screamed, burying her face in her hands again.
> 
> Levi just gave the woman a 'Are you fucking serious look'. "Hanji?"
> 
> "Y-yeah?"
> 
> "You do realize you bought those fucking rodents a week before we headed off on this expedition?"
> 
> Hanji just cried even harder, resulting in Levi absconding the fuck out, not willing to deal with with the woman's idiotic problems.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I may be going at a slower pace, but I'm still smashing these bad boys out!...I need to work on my other fics...and drawings...and school work :'D
> 
> Anyways, I managed to get a cold, so I've been bedridden for the weekend. I'm already feeling much better (and hopefully I'll be fit enough to go outside and DO something tomorrow, I'm sick of just sitting here and doing nothing for so long!), and this was a good way to distract me from my sore throat. Can't really complain though, the worst sickness I've had to deal with was a VERY nasty case of Gastro...
> 
> That's enough from me right now, I doubt you guys wanna hear about any of my BS

"Alright Jean, Connie, Sasha, I'd like you three to keep an eye on Eren while I'm gone to pick up Commander Smith from the airport at the town nearby." Hanji stated as she tossed a bag into the army green car.

The three gave each other skeptical looks before turning back the the Squad Leader, Jean being the one to speak up. "Sir, why don't you have Corporal Levi or some other high ranking officer keep an eye on him?"

Hanji couldn't help but pout, "Levi decided to piss off somewhere, so I can't ask him even though he was going to be my first option. And to put it bluntly, I'm choosing you three because you were the first trustworthy people I can find before I head off."

"Oh...You should have thought this through a bit better, Sir."

"Nah, it's fine. All you guys need to do is keep an eye on him. Just feed him, give him water, interact with him a bit, and let him out of the cage to let him stretch and walk around for a bit. Just make sure you zip up the tent when you let him out." The older woman told the three as she moved into the drivers seat. "Oh, and one more thing. Make sure his muzzle stays on except for when he's eating and drinking. He gets pretty bitey and I've noticed he's been trying to bite his hand for some reason...so yeah, unless you want him to bite your leg off or something, I'd keep it on."

"Huh...That seems easy enough."

"It shouldn't be that difficult." The woman paused to turn the key, and bring the vehicle to life. " Anyways, don't worry too much about it. I'll be back in a couple of hours, Roughly around lunch, maybe a bit later. I'll see you guys then." Hanji waved at the cadets before driving off.

The three waved their superior off in silence as they watched the car disappear into the bushes and trees. They then headed towards the tent with their charge inside until a thought popped into Connie's head.

"Umm, guys?"

"Mmm?"

"What are we gonna do when he needs to go to the toilet?"

The other two paused, letting Connie's question sink in. Sasha was the first to respond by balling her hand into a fist, thumb sticking out and jabbed it against her forehead.

"SHOTTY NOT!"

The two boys gave her an odd look, eventually Jean's mind clicked on what she was doing and mimicked the girls action.

"Shotty not!"

Connie was still confused, looking at them both until it finally dawned on him.

"Damn it!" 

 

Eren was rather content at the moment, submerging and rolling around in freshly washed sheets, enjoying to comfortable warmth when he wrapped himself up in the blankets. Jean was sitting on a crate, glancing at the boy boredly before turning his attention to the cards in his hand. God damn it, why did he always end up with the old maid?

"-And so, the police rocked up, only to find out that those guys just had corn flour." Connie rambled on as the three started telling stories from there school days.

"Wow, those guys clearly don't have two brain cells to rub together." Sasha mumbled as she reached to grab a card from Jean's hand. Jean's mouth twitched slightly that Sasha didn't pick the damn card he desperately wanted to get rid of.

"The bizzare thing is that even though it wasn't cocaine, they actually ended up with a police record for that joke."

"Well, they're a bunch of morons for doing it in the first place." Jean sighed, as he decided to place his cards down. "Alright, I'm hungry, so I'll grab lunch. I'll grab the kid something too, so one of you guys let him out."

Sasha propped herself up, walking over to the cage just as Jean left, and unhooked the lock before opening it. Eren noticed the cage was opened and cautiously crawled out onto the hard ground, eying the two teens in the tent, then proceeded to stretch and wonder around aimlessly.

"Alright, what stories have you got?"

"Umm, well there was this one time when we pissed the maths teacher off enough that he walked out of class, and we even heard him drive off on his motorbike."

Connie cracked up and demanded the girl to tell him what happened in detail. Eren was just crawling around on the ground, exploring the boxes and gadgets that were scattered around inside the tent.

A gust of wind blew against the tent, and the loud fluttering sound of the tent flaps caught the boys attention. Curiosity took hold as he he crouched down and stalked closer to the flaps, as if it was prey. When he was close enough, he lunged forward, going straight through the flaps, and crashed face first into the dirt.

Pushing himself up, a scent caught Eren's nose which lead him to a tree behind the tent. Sniffing around a bit, he began digging underneath a root, finding a bag inside a rabbit hole. Pulling the bag up, Eren attempted to rip it open with his teeth, to no avail from the muzzle getting in the way. He attempted clawing and pulling but the bag did not give. With a huff, Eren batted the bag in anger before crawling off into the wild.

 

"Alright guys, grubs up!" Jean announced as he entered the tent. In the blink of an eye, a blur charged at the male who was balancing 4 plates, and as soon as he blinked again, the blur was gone, along with one of the plates.

"Oh man, these rissoles are great!" Sasha garbled as she shoveled some of the steaming vegetables into her already full mouth.

Jean grimaced at the females lack of manners. "Jeez, don't do that, you'll give someone a heart attack doing that. Remember the time you did that and almost took Christa's hand off when she gave you an extra roll of bread?" 

"Cugh me om flack, I 'int eaf anyfink or ovfa ive ourf!"

This time Connie pulled a face of disgust as he grabbed his plate from Jean. "Eww Sasha, don't eat with your mouth full, were you raised in a barn?"

Sasha swallowed her food in an audible gulp, "I said to cut me some slack, I was running for over 5 hours and didn't have any food, or a single drop of water!"

"Well that was your fault for getting caught eating a bag of skittles on orientation day."

The girl just sighed and continued eating her lunch.

Jean looked around, other than Sasha's loud eating, the tent was very quiet. "...Hey guys, where's that kid?"

"He should be around here somewhere." Connie said. He placed his plate onto the crate he was sitting on and took a look around for the feral boy. He wasn't under their squad leaders desk or tables, he wasn't paying around in the boxes or crates, he wasn't back in the cage. Where was he?

Another strong wind blew against the tent, the opening of the tent fluttered loudly which was distracting Connie from thinking of where the boy would be. It took a minute, but it finally clicked as the blood was slowly draining from his face.

"Yo Connie, what's wrong? You look like you just saw a ghost."

"I-uh....ah...."

"Huh?"

"Jean, did you remember to zip the tent closed when you got food?"

"Of course I di-oh shit...Wait, you two should have been keeping an eye on him anyways!"

"Hey, don't blame us! You were the one who left the tent open!"

"Well, you should have been paying attention! You could have easily made sure he didn't get out!"

"Well, you should have remembered the squad leaders instructions!"

Sasha just continued eating while the boys were bickering, letting out a content sigh as soon as she ate everything on her plate till it was spotless, and began to clear her throat.

"Alright guys, how about you two stop bitching like 14 year old girls, and go looking for him before Miss Hanji get's back."

The girl wasted no time to run outside. The boys looked at each other, rather surprised to see the hungry female having one of her mature, serious moments, only to jump when they heard a scream right outside the tent. The two boys bolted out of the tent and followed where the scream came from.

Apparently it was Sasha who screamed, who was currently panicking over a bag sitting on her lap as she opened the bag to inspect the contents inside.

"Hey Sasha, what's with the screaming?"

The girl jumped with a squeak, trying her best to cover the bag in her possession. "Oh! Uh...nothing, nothing at all!" She laughed nervously as she tried to stand up, only to drop something from the bag. Sasha tried to quickly pick it up, only for a boot to step on top of it. 

Glancing up, Sasha felt a cold chill when she was looking up to Corporal Levi, who was leering at her with the unfamiliar and rare moments of slight interest.

"So this is where you hide your junk food." The corporal stated simply, The poor girl on the ground felt like crawling under a rock to die. The short male turned his attention to the other two, "Anyway, I thought I'd check up on the brat for that woman, since I know she would have wanted me to keep an eye on him. You three seem like you'd know something, care to tell me where the damn brat is?"

Jean was the one to nervously gulp and find the guts to say something, "W-well sir, the thing about that is-"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think it's appropriate for all of us to have a moment of silence for the three cadets that are going to be screwed as soon as everything is explained to Levi U_U


	9. Chapter 9

"So, how's everyone been on this tri-" the tall blond man was cut off from his question as the car had hit another pothole on the dirt road, causing him to hit his head on the roof of the vehicle.

"Yeah, everyone's been great. There's been a little bit of friction and a few spats, but nothing too serious." Hanji chimed as she drove the car over a series of small mounds, causing both patrons to bounce on every bump. Hanji had been renowned for a lot of things; her scientific experiments, her recklessness that most people would be dead from, her overall eccentric behavior, and her talent of unintentionally finding every hole and bump whenever she drives. Unfortunately for Irvin Smith, he was experiencing it first hand in the worst terrain.

"Hanji, I think you need to slow down a bit."

"I'm only going at 30, any slower and we'll have turtles overtaking us."

"Right...So, care to tell me why you wanted me to buy new shirts?"

"It's for the boy we found. He's been running around this whole time naked, so I thought we'd get him some large shirts to cover him."

"Ahh, fair enough."

"Not gonna lie, I'd think it would be hilarious if he got out and ended up streaking through the camp. I'm sure that would liven things up a bit," The woman cackled at the thought. "Alright, we're getting close to camp now." Hanji announced as she drove over the wooden bridge.

Irvin let out a low whistle, "That river has a pretty strong current."

"We had some pretty heavy rain for the last two days so-JESUS CHRIST!" Hanji screeched as she slammed hard on the breaks, causing the two to jerk forward as the very familiar faces of Connie, Sasha, and Jean sprinted across the road and into the wilderness. The two adults just sat there, bug eyed for a moment before Levi stormed out of the bushes, and came towards the car.

"Oi, shitty woman." Levi snapped as he knocked on the window.

Hanji pulled the car into neutral before rolling the window down. "Levi, what the heck were those three doing? I told them to supervise Eren."

The short male crossed his arms over his chest as he leered at the woman. "You really need to be nominated for the Darwin awards because you not only had fresh meat keep an eye on the damn brat, but out of all 11 of them you had to pick the three stooges."

"Huh?"

"Those moron's let the kid escape."

It only took a second for Hanji to start screaming and swearing. Flinging to door open, the woman bolted into the scrub, following the direction the teens had gone. Levi just rolled his eyes at the scientists over exaggerated response, before turning his attention to the other male who was still sitting in the car, eyebrow raised in confusion.

"Commander."

"Corporal."

The two just stayed where they were, in mutual silence, patiently waiting for Hanji and the cadets to return. It took about 3 minutes before another scream erupted from deep within the forest.

"Should we check that out?" Irvin asked, choosing to get out of the car.

Levi let out an aggravated sigh, "I don't think we have a choice."

*~*

"HOW THE HELL DID HE GET UP THERE?!" Hanji screeched, hands tugging at her hair roughly as she looked up at the enormous tree that loomed over the river, where Eren was perched on a branch covered in thick vines.

Connie and Sasha were repetitively apologizing to the older woman, while Jean was making his attempt to climb up the tree to grab the wild boy and bring him down. It was surprising to see that the boy had made a fair effort so far as he was a few branhcs away from where Eren was, and he's convinced that while the feral boy is probably as smart as a brick, he'd still have the instincts to tell him not to jump off the branch.

Hanji had finally stopped shouting and had chosen to nervously bite on her knuckle as a substitute while she was focused on the two boys in the tree. If either of them fell out and hurt themselves, she was screwed.

"Jesus Christ woman, we could hear you from the car. There needs to be a limit to your outside voice." Levi grumbled as he pushed his way through a bush, Irvin following closely behind.

The scientist jumped, biting into her knuckle a bit harder than intended, but still kept her eyes trained on what was above them.

Levi just scoffed that the woman ignored him, while Irvin followed Hanji's gaze upwards, seeing the cadet had finally reached the same branch as the naked boy. Tapping on the shorter's shoulder, Levi caught on, glancing up and let out a small 'oh'.

Jean paused for a moment to catch his breath, he hadn't climbed trees since he was a kid. Eren was slowly backing away while keeping his gaze on him, not realizing his right hand had managed to get caught in a vine.

Taking one last gulp of air, Jean moved onto his hands and knees to crawl along the branch, which only encouraged Eren to keep going backwards. A loud creak reverberated from the branch, both boys paused for a moment.

"Alright kid, come here before you fall off." Jean said.

Eren snorted as he took another step back, hearing the creak from the weight straining the branch caused the cadet to flinch. Another step back was taken, this time Eren's knee lost his footing causing him to lose his balance and slip off.

"FUCK!" Jean shouted as he looked down at the boy plummeting towards the river. It took a brief moment to realize his right arm was tangled in a vine that seemed thick enough that it wouldn't give way, which put the teen at ease a little.

He watched the vine that was still on the tree finally tug which soon followed by the snap-back. A distressed scream was still heard and the sound of something hitting the water. Jean jumped when Hanji let out a scream of her own. Looking down he still saw the arm tangled up in the vine, but ONLY the arm. The cadets eye's widened in shock as he then found Eren flailing around, struggling to keep his head up in the water as the current was pushing him away.

Hanji was on the verge of hyperventilating, tears pouring down her face. She couldn't believe her eyes, the snap-back had enough force to actually rip Eren's arm off. Sure, she's head of it happening, she didn't really believe it, but seeing it happen right in front of her eyes was too much for her to deal with.

Connie and Sasha were also horrified at the sight. Connie stood there, eyes bulging with his mouth hanging open, while Sasha's hands covered her mouth and nose as tears were prickling in her eyes.

Levi didn't waste time to strip out of his jacket and jump in after the boy, using the current to give him a boost as he swam to the boy. As soon as he caught up, the corporal wrapped his arms around the injured boy, and attempted to swim over to the river bank. They had successfully managed to reach the bank but with the force of the water, and one arm keeping hold of Eren, he was only able to get a firm grip on a rock and wait until the others came to help get them up.

Irvin was the one to pull the two out of the water, Levi was shaking violently from the cold water that had now drenched his clothes.

"Are you alright Levi? Here." The commander removed his coat and draped it over the tiny corporal, who wrapped the clothing around himself like a blanket.

"I'm fine. Thanks."

Eren was laying on the ground coughing weakly, vomiting up the water he had accidentally ingested. Hanji mimicked Irvins actions, rugging the boys shivering body in her own coat, and pulled him into a protective hug. "Shhh shhh shhh. Everything's alright now Eren. We'll get you back to the medical tent and patch you up."

The boy made pained chittering sounds, before curling up and snuggling into Hanji's bosom for warmth.

Jean, who had finally got down from the tree, had caught up with everyone and let out a sigh of relief when he saw that the boy was alright. He turned his attention to his friends, who both looked pretty wound up by the whole ordeal.

"Guys, you can relax now, they're fine."

"We cant." Sasha squeaked.

"Of course you can!"

"No, we really can't."

"And why's that?"

"Because as soon as we get back to camp, we're dead."

"Oh..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I also apologize for the second half of the fic, I was half asleep when i wrote it =w=;
> 
> Fun fact, the severed arm thing came in when I remembered an incident from last year where a similar thing happened, but with a rope swing. The incident didn't happen in my town, but it happened somewhere nearby.


	10. Chapter 10

Irvin and Hanji decided to leave Levi and the cadets behind to walk back. It's not like they couldn't fit everyone in the car, it was that Levi erupted in a fit of rage at the teens. The boys looked like they were about to pee themselves, Sasha was brought to tears, and higher ranking officers were completely shell shocked. The two had known Levi for well over 5 years, he was always relatively calm, quiet, stoic, never one to get to loud unless necessary; so seeing him like this...it was absolutely terrifying!

So what did the Commander and Squad leader do?

Abscond to the car as quick as possible, of course.

"Alright, I think I can see the camp up ahead." Irvin announced as he slowed down at a sharp turn. The blond glanced at the woman in the passenger seat, who was holding onto the injured boy on her lap. The kid was letting out pained whines and cries in his distressed state, his left arm had reached out of the coat that he was wrapped in, and was clinging tightly to the scientist's shirt.

Hanji grunted in acknowledgement as she was rubbing her hand in circular motions on Eren's back, which certainly helped calm the child down slightly since he had become less fidgety. The woman sighed, "Poor baby...It'll be alright Eren, we're almost at camp and then we'll fix you up!"

Ervin couldn't help but crack a small smile, "Nice to see you're trying to stay optimistic over this."

"Well we have what we need for this kind of situation, and as horrible as it is to say, the worst case scenario is that he loses an arm."

"Worst case scenario? What's that suppose to mean?"

Hanji sighed and gave the blond a nervous smile, "It's kinda hard to explain, we'll cross that bridge when we get there." 

The commander decided to leave it at that, he would find out eventually and his first priority was to get the boy medical attention. When they had finally made it back to the camp, both adults wasted no time to get the boy to the medic tent and lay him onto one of the beds.

"ACK! Eren, you need to let go!" Hanji cried out as the boy grabbed onto , and tugging violently at her ponytail while letting out frantic cries; Irvin had to grab onto the child's frail wrist and give it a tight squeeze till he finally let go of the woman's hair. 

Once she was released from Eren's grip, Hanji quickly shuffled through the supplies to find the anesthetic and needle, which she wasted no time to inject a small dose into his arm, just to get the riled up boy to settle down and relax.

"I feel kinda bad for constantly drugging the poor kid," Hanji sighed as she removed the muzzle, followed by disposing the needle. "Alright, I need to take a look at his arm."

Irvin was the one to peel the coat off his body. To his surprise, he ended up getting a puff of vapor in his face. "WOAH!"

"Oh thank god!" Hanji groaned in relief, shoulders slumped and face looking up to the top of the tent.

"What is this?"

The woman composed herself. "Right, when we had the little incident with the rumored giant, we managed to cut his hand off which started to produce steam shortly after. On closer inspection, we found out he was regenerating. Since Eren came out of the giant, I had a small suspicion that he might have possessed the same ability while he's human, but I wasn't willing to risk his safety and well being with such a gamble."

"I see....Has he turned back into a giant since then."

"Thankfully no, it took a lot of man power to get the damn thing down the first time, and we're already running really low on tranquilizers and ammo if we ever have to deal with that again."

"Right, another question. Why Eren? Your naming sense is usually a bit more....eccentric."

"I had originally named him Titan, but then we made the discovery of his real identity," Hanji paused, which made Irvin that much more curious until she continued. "We found some tapes in Dr Yeager's old research hideout, most of them was just him trying new formulas and testing them on subjects such as rats, birds, and frogs, which all ended in failure. Since the military had cut off his funding, he made a last ditch effort out of desperation and he...He used his son."

Irvin's eyes widened at the news.

"You can kinda guess the rest from there, but Yeager is now confirmed to be dead. The first time he transformed, he ended up eating both his parents. We're still trying to figure out what triggered the transformation though since it came out of nowhere."

The commander seemed to be struggling to absorb all the new information, and chose to sit on one of the spare beds and rubbed his fingers against his temples. "This is a lot to take in."

"Mmmn, it's a pretty surreal situation."

Hanji felt a small tug on her pant leg, looking down to see Eren looking up at her, glassy eyed, and looking like a toddler who wants his mothers attention. The woman squatted down and placed her hand on his cheek, which the boy turned and rubbed his face against.

"It's alright now Eren. Everything'll be fine." She reassured gently, which earned a few small chirps as he continued to nuzzle her hand until he dosed off from exhaustion. "Y'know, he's really cute when he's not trying to attack and kill everything."

"You seem to be pretty clucky around him." Irvin commented.

"Hmn?"

"Just then, you had a bit of a...motherly feel coming from you, and you seem pretty protective of him."

"Heh really? I think I'd make a god awful mum; but when I look at Eren, and knowing he's been on his own without someone to take care of him for so long, I guess there is a bit of maternal instinct that kicks in."

Irvin smiled as he watched the woman place the boys arm back onto the bed and pulled the sheets up before flopping onto the same bed he was sitting on, whipped out a pen and notepad and jotted something down.

"It's been a loooong day." Hanji mumbled as she placed the pen and pad back into her pocket.

"It certainly has."

Silence fell onto them, not being able to find anything to talk about, and just lazily laid on the bed for a while until Levi made his appearance.

"How's he going?"

"He's fine, he happens to have the same regenerating abilities as to when he's a giant."

The corporal raised an eyebrow, "So, he's like a lizard that can grow it's tail back after it's cut off." It was more of a statement than a question, but the scientist still let out a grunt of confirmation. "Right...Alright you three, get your useless arses in here." Levi ordered as Sasha, Connie, and Jean walked in, all three stiff and nervous.

Hanji could tell where this was going and decided to give the three a weak smile, "Alright, I know where this is going, but it's fine. Accidents happen, everything's okay, and Eren will eventually be up and running."

"You're being to lenient." Irvin muttered quietly.

"W-we're still terribly sorry Squad Leader."

"Jesus Christ, Levi's got you guys on the verge of peeing yourselves. Look everything's fine! You're still going to need punishment, but there's no point worrying over Eren anymore."

"I've already decided their punishment. They all have to clean the bathroom and shower stalls every morning and night for the remainder of the trip. They will also be unable to indulge in the contents of this bag, which will be shared among the other trainees." Levi stated firmly as he raised a bag that had been covered in dirt. If Sasha hadn't looked like she was on the verge of an emotional breakdown, Hanji wouldn't have had a damn clue what was inside the bag.

"I think that's fair enough. You three are dismissed."

The three saluted before leaving the tent, probably going back the trainee tents to tell the others what happened or to sulk.

"So what's the plan now."

Hanji shrugged. "Couldn't tell ya. I'm going to be keeping an eye on Eren, I wanna see how fast his healing capabilities are. I guess you're free to do whatever."

Levi just stared at the woman before heading out to go about his own devices, Irvin deciding to tag along, which left the woman alone with the unconscious boy.

"Such a fascinating thing you are, Eren." Hanji muttered even though it was to fall on deaf ears. It was then that her stomach decided to rumble in it's demand for food. "I'll be back in a bit. Hope you don't wake up and wonder off again." She grinned as she pushed herself up and ruffled the mop of brown hair before heading out for lunch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Random question - Has Levi's age actually been confirmed by Isayama? I see it all over Tumblr where people say he's 30-34, and I'm just sitting here like 'What the fuck?! He looks like he's in his early to mid 20's!'
> 
> It's not actually relevant to this fic, I'm just curious.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahaha...I managed to knock this one out in a rather sleep deprived state last night :'D sosorryifitsnotthatgoodsinceithinkitsabitoffbuthey youguysmightstilllikeitidfk

In a little over a day and a half, Eren was back up and running. Crawling around on the ground with his new right arm, he was constantly following Hanji around like a puppy clinging onto it's new master, and over the course of a few days he had also taken a shine to some of the trainees; namely Armin, Mikasa, and Christa.

Eren was fond of Armin since he likes to pick on the poor blond by headbutting his leg and stealing his possessions, but he also enjoys curling up to nap next to him while Armin would quietly read a book. Mikasa was the one to play around with him through mock wrestling, which helped to build up his muscles (they were currently in the process of strengthening his calves so he could walk) and giving him the affectionate attention he needed. Christa was found to be the least threatening, and also liked to show affection towards him, which often lead to a huffy Ymir.

Most of the other cadets were a bit touch and go; He would be a bit stubborn around Ymir, Sasha, Connie, and Marco. He had a strong dislike towards Jean for some odd reason, at one point he was trying to bite Jean's leg off which ended in failure since he couldn't get his teeth through the cadet's boot and only managed to get Jean to fall on his arse. As for Annie, Reiner, and Berthold; Eren would avoid them like the plague. He found the three very intimidating, though Hanji suspects his only scared of Berthold due to his freakish height.

As for Levi...Levi was just glad the feral boy finally had a shirt big enough to cover his shame.

Currently Hanji was tapping away on her laptop, typing up her current research and observation notes. Armin was occupying the seat next the the woman, and was currently reading through some of Dr Yeager's notes which he found fascinating, while Mikasa was sitting on the ground, trying to pull Eren's shirt back on after he had managed to get it half off in his hatred for the clothing.

"No. Eren, sit still and wear your shirt." Mikasa commanded as she struggled to get the boy, who was flailing around and snarling on her lap, to get his arm through the hole.

Armin lowered his book and watched the two's antics "You need any help Mikasa?"

"That would be great Armin." Mikasa grunted as she finally got his arm in, only for Eren to pull his head out of the hole.

Hanji turned in her chair and watched as the blond approached the two, and soon ended up struggling in the little tussle, though Eren was now on the losing side even though he was still putting up a fight. The brunette couldn't help but grin and giggle.

Being distracted by the little show, the scientist didn't notice that someone had entered the tent until there was a tap on her shoulder which the woman jumped at from the surprise. Looking up, she was greeted by Auruo.

"Hey! I haven't seen you for a few days, where the hell have you been hiding?"

"You've pretty much secluded yourself in this tent, looking after that....Damn brat." The man snorted as he leered at the boy who had finally had his shirt back on, cheeks puffed up in disapproval.

"Oh god, don't try acting like Levi again. It'll start with the same insults, and then you'll become some OCD freak who obsessed over perfection and cleanliness. One Levi is enough thank you!"

Auruo scoffed, "Whatever. Anyways, Commander Smith needs to talk to you, it sounds pretty serious."

"Alright." Hanji pushed herself up, and turned her head to the three that were sitting on the ground. "Hey, you two gonna be alright keeping an eye on him on your own?"

"Yeah, we should be fine." Mikasa answered. Armin was distracted by pulling faces, which Eren would mimic.

"Okay then, lead the way."

Hanji followed Auruo outside and found Irvin, who was discussing something with Mike, Gunther, and Urd outside the food hall. Guessing from the body language and hand gestures, it seemed like something that was guy exclusive, which would just fly over Hanji's head.

"Commander, I brought Zoe." Auruo interrupted the mens talk, all four males looking at the two.

"Thank you Auruo, you're all dismissed." Irvin stated, the group of men just waltzed away to go do whatever they felt like.

"Heh, we're so damn relaxed right now that we don't even bother saluting each other. The higher ups would be spewing if they saw this." Hanji joked.

Irvin made a noise in agreement, followed by giving the Squad Leader a serious look. "I got a message from Central."

"Oh?"

"It appears that Maria is threatening to wage war on Rose and Sina."

"Shit, we've been trying to avoid this...Does that mean we're gonna be heading back?"

"At this point you've been scheduled to return by the end of the month, but depending on the situation, you might need to be prepared to move out earlier."

"I see."

"Rose has been trying their best to maintain the peace, but things don't seem to be going in our favor. If war is declared, we may need to resort to our new weapon."

"Huh? New weapon?" Hanji questioned with a quirked eyebrow. She looked Irvin straight in the eye until it clicked, and gasped. "NO! There's no way we can do that!"

"I don't think we have a choice. He was created to be a weapon after all, and with what we've seen, we may be able to avoid it if we threaten Maria."

"But Eren hasn't transformed once since we've had him in our custody. We wouldn't know how to trigger his transformation, nor do we know if we'd be able to contain him if he were to go out of control. And then there's his own health to consider, he's physically 15, but he's only an infant mentally. I can't allow this, he's not ready!"

"Then all he needs is some training, and with some research I'm sure we can find a way to trigger his transformation and how to control him if he were to act up."

"Don't forget he was out of commission for 3 days straight afterwards with a high fever, and we don't know how long he can last in his giant form!"

"Hanji!" Irvin snapped. "Must I remind you that you are a soldier. If conflict were to arise, then we must allow sacrifices to be made in order to protect our country and our allies. That is out job. Emotional attachments and morality will only get you killed. Do I make myself clear?"

Sweat started to drip from Hanji's face and she swallowed hard, "Y-yes sir..."

Irvin seemed to relax and let out a sigh, "Good. Look, I understand you want to protect the boy, but under these circumstances, I don't think it's possible... Your dismissed."

Hanji nodded before trudging back to her tent, her expression grim while her head hung low as a million thoughts spun around in her head at once. When she returned to her tent, Mikasa and Armin only took one look at their superior to know that she wanted some alone time, so they picked themselves up from the ground and left. Hanji plopped onto her chair; elbows on her knees and face buried in her hands as her shoulders shuddered every time she breathed as she tried to calm herself down.

Eren, who was still left inside the tent, noticed the change in behavior of the usually perky and cheerful woman, and made his way over for inspection. Position still the same, Eren placed his hands on the woman's knees to pull himself up to stand on his own knees and lick the back of her hands.

The scientist let out a little squeak at the strange touch and removed her hands from her face to see Eren in front of her and nipping at her fingers, which was probably his own bizarre way of comforting her. A strained chuckle left her lips as she moved her hands to ruffle the boys hair and then pulling his ears gently.

"Heh, you're such a sweetheart knowing you were worried about me."

Eren rested his head on her lap and let out a high pitched purr, enjoying the sensation from the light tugs on his ears.

"Hmmm, you deserve better than this. You deserve a home with someone to who will love and take care of you, not life out here in the wild, or with the military."

As soon as the ear pulling stopped, Eren raised his head to look Hanji in the eye. He then managed to climb onto the woman's lap, stomach on her legs while his limbs and head flopped off the ends like an oversized rag doll.

"Oh god Eren, you're a bit too big for this." Hanji grunted as she tried to position herself better in her seat while Eren made no attempt to move. As soon as she was able to get into a more comfortable position, she carefully turned her chair (making sure Eren's head wouldn't hit the desk) and proceeded with her work, occasionally scratching the top of the boys head absentmindedly as she flicked through her notes in an act to distract herself.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Urgh, this was much more tedious to get up here than on tumblr of FF.net....mostly because i thought my phone would be able to upload it but the end of it kept being cut out when i pasted it in. 
> 
>  
> 
> Anyways, i was gonna upload it Saturday but my internet ran out, Sunday I decided to go the Macca's to scab their internet, which wasn't working (also, a bird managed to shit on my laptop case on the walk down), i got the chance to get it up at TAFE yesterday during my day off, and now i finally got it up here during class
> 
> This was clearly more effort just t post up than to write >_>

"Absolutely not." The Corporal stated firmly to the strawberry blond female who was currently seated at the bench on the other side of the table Levi was occupying in his preparation for lunch. A certain brown haired boy was currently wearing a makeshift harness that had been tied to one of the table legs so he wouldn't wonder off, which is exactly what he was attempting to do.

"But Levi, Hanji needs you to keep an eye on him for a while." Petra begged.

"Tell her to go blow it out her arse. The kid is her responsibility; I shouldn't be the one to babysit him."

"But Hanji isn't overly fit at the moment."

"Tsk, what's wrong? Having problems with her period or something?"

Petra scoffed at the comment. "LEVI! She caught a nasty case of gastro last night, and she's that sick that she couldn't even sit up even if she tried."

"That would explain the mess Springer was whining about with one of the toilets…Fine, whatever. If the brat gets in my way with anything important, I'm not holding myself responsible for his or my own actions." Levi groaned, fully convinced the feral boy was gonna piss him off throughout the day.

Petra smiled brightly at the corporal for finally agreeing to the request.

Levi glanced over the table, watching as Eren was fidgeting around and trying to pull against the rope that tied him to the table in hopes that it would snap. "Why is he acting up like this?"

"Mmmm, separation issues I'd guess. You've seen how much he clings to the squad leader."

"Doesn't help that she's constantly coddling him," Levi grumbles as he picked up his cup of tea and took a sip. "It'll be interesting when we head back. He's pretty cautious of a lot of people here; imagine how he's going to be once we bring him into civilization."

"It'll be incredibly daunting for a start, but with Hanji around, I'm sure he'll be fine."

"Unless her crazy rubs off on him."

Petra giggled at the comment, "Alright, I'll grab lunch for us. Be back in a bit." She announced, stood up and walked over to line up with others waiting for food.

Levi sighed, placing his elbow on the table and combed his fingers through his hair; he really wasn't in the mood to look after a brat who can't even understand anything said to him. Eyes flicked down to see that Eren had stopped struggling and was now staring back at him, teal eyes focused intensely which actually surprised the corporal.

"What on earth are you thinking?" He mumbled to himself, leering back at the boy. Eren was the one to break eye contact and disappeared behind the bench on the other side, only to reappear as he managed to climb onto the wooden seat. Out of morbid curiosity, Levi ducked his head under the table, seeing his butt planted on the wooden surface of the bench and feet planted on the ground. "Not bad kid." He commented, honestly a little impressed that the boy was sitting up properly.

Eren was pulling a face; clearly he wasn't comfortable in his current position which just raised more questions for the Corporal because why would he sit in a position he wasn't comfortable with?

Within minutes Petra returned with three plates of food and cutlery. She was taken by surprise to see that Eren was sitting on the bench, "Oh! Are you going to join us up here for lunch, Eren?" The boy just tilted his head in her direction, which made the female giggle as she placed the plates on the table, "I'll take that as a yes."

"The minute he buries his face in his food, or eats with his hands, he's going back on the floor." Levi mumbled, picking up his knife and fork and began to cut into his steak. He heard Petra sighed, deciding to not bother arguing with him, and he felt that someone was staring at him. Looking up, Eren was watching him again, with the same intense stare he had before he started sitting. Watching the boy, the brunette glanced down at his cutlery and carefully picked up the knife and fork in both hands, and that's when it clicked.

He was studying him, and trying to mimic his actions.

Petra, who had just shoved a mouthful of mashed potato into her mouth looked at Levi, and then turned her attention to Eren, who was now attempting to stab his steak in the most awkward manner with the wrong end of the silver wear. The woman smiled as she placed her utensils on her plate and reached over to Eren, grabbing onto his hands and guiding him though cutting the steak and moving the piece on the fork up to his mouth to eat.

Eren's eyes were wide during the whole experience, and as soon as the succulent piece of cooked meat entered his mouth, his eyes brightened immensely and began vigorously (and sloppily) try to cut out the next bit of steak.

"…I never thought I'd see the day where I'd meet someone so interested in food other than Brause." Levi commented.

"I'm rather surprised to see he's actually trying to use his knife and fork."

"He's been around people for a little while now, so he's mimicking others actions, which is probably why he was able to sit since he was probably studyi- On the floor now, brat!"

—-

The rest of the day didn't end too badly, not saying there weren't any hiccups; namely the few attempts to wonder off try and find Hanji, and the fact that Eren had no shame in defecating wherever he damn well pleased. Other than that, he was rather well behaved.

What started off as a pleasant sunny day ended up becoming overcast by 4:20, and now it looked like a storm might be brewing. Luckily it was about time to put Eren back into his cage for the night, so Levi wouldn't have to worry about getting caught in the rain if he did it now.

Returning to Hanji's study, Levi stripped Eren of his harness and had him chew on an apple as a substitute for a toothbrush before bringing him to his cage to sleep. Eren crawled around on his mattress for a moment before making himself comfy with his sheets.

"Hmn, you're actually not that bad, at least when you want to be." Levi commented, which earned a blank stare from Eren. As soon as the Corporal motioned to leave the cage, the tent was lit up by a sudden strike of lightning, which caused Eren to jump, and as soon as the roar of thunder followed, the boy became incredibly skittish as widened teal eyes darted around the tent and he backed up against the cage.

Levi sighed, "Everything's fine. You're safe in the tent, so the lightning won't get you." Another flash went off, causing Eren to squeal and dart towards the Corporal and cling to his leg. "Let go, the lightning isn't going to get you!" Levi snapped as he tried to kick the boy off his leg, who was visibly shaking when the thunder rolled around again.

"Oi, get off me now or-" Levi stopped as soon as Eren lifted his head and saw that the boy was terrified to the point of tears. "…Shit."

Eren continued to hug Levi's leg, refusing to let go as the sound of heavy rain and strong wind started to beat against the tent came into the mixture of thunder and lightning.

"Damn it kid, you need to let go."

Eren only gripped onto the leg tighter in response.

"Fine, whatever. Scooch." Levi sighed in defeat as he moved further inside the cage, Eren dragged along since he was still clinging to his leg for dear life. With an annoyed huff, the Corporal planted his butt onto the mattress and grabbed a few sheets to cushion the metal bars his back was leaning on. Eren glanced up and finally let go, crawling up and made himself comfy with his arm and head placed on the short man's stomach. With another sigh, Levi pulled up the remaining blankets up to cover the boy's body, and his legs.

"Don't get to cozy with this, Eren. As soon as you're asleep, I'm gone." Levi mumbled as he tried to position himself better. It wasn't long before the boy to fall asleep, arm still wrapped around the corporals waist and head on his stomach. Levi himself was beginning to feel drowsy, and found himself too tired to bother getting up and ended up nodding off.

It wasn't till the next morning when Hanji, who was still currently 'dying' from her little bug, came into her tent to grab something, that Levi regretted his decision to not go back to his own bed when he was abruptly woken by a high pitched squeal and the flash of a camera.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...I think I've been reading too many comics of big brother/guardian!Levi and kid!Eren because I get so high from the cute factor from them that this happened :'D


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Wheezes*
> 
> Thank Ya'll for being patient UwU and to reward you guys, I wrote a longer chapter!
> 
> ...
> 
> Okay, that's a lie, I just managed to hit 2k words without realizing, which is also a bit of a shocker since I usually burn out before then :'D if only this was my modernism essay I still need to start
> 
> If I bothered to name my chapters this would be 'In which Feral attempts to write drama and fails epically because they hate drama as a thing in general"

The day finally came. It was the much anticipated day that everyone could come home. Everything was being taken down and packed, most were still going around the site for a last minute clean up to make sure they weren't leaving anything behind. Currently, a certain scientist had the tedious job of getting a feral child into the car. 

"Ack! Eren sit still!" Hanji whined as she tried to get Eren to stay in place to buckle in the seat belt. Unfortunately for the scientist, Eren wasn't being compliant as he fidgeted about in the middle seat. "Come on Eren, don't make me get Papa Levi to do this."

The unpleasant sensation of being kicked in the butt came out of nowhere as Hanji let out a yip and smacked her head on the roof of the car. Eren was left snickering at the woman's pain.

"God damn it, enough of that stupid nickname! It was a one time thing, and it wouldn't have happened if the brat wasn't such a sook over a little storm." Levi snapped from behind the taller woman who was rubbing where the top of her head.

"Aww, but it was so cute seeing you two like that! Plus, Eren absolutely adores you like you're his daddy." that comment earned another boot to the arse. "Alright alright! Jesus, what's got you cranky today?"

"I just want to go home, have a decent shower, and finally relax for a bit. The quicker we leave the better."

"Fair enough. I'm pretty sure everyone's over it now, so thank god we're finally leaving." Hanji sighed as she finally got the buckle to click in, much to Eren's chagrin as he pulled the belt up and began chewing on it.

"What are you going to do with him when we get on the plane?"

"Well we'll see how he goes, but I've got a needle ready if he starts acting up or panics."

Levi sighed, "Aren't you sick of drugging the poor kid?"

"I am, but sometimes it's necessary; especially now that we're heading back to base. He's going to be incredibly stressed out just from the culture shock of being outside this jungle."

"Fair enough."

The two adults chatted away for a while; mostly talking about their plans for when they get back and (hopefully) get time off for a break. It was a little after noon that Irvin and Mike made their way to the car.

"Alright Hanji, seems like you're ready to go."

"Yep!"

"Excellent. Corporal, will you be joining us?"

"May as well; you're all leaving earlier, so that's convenient." The shorter male stated, not bothering to acknowledge what the Commander was saying as he made his way to the other side of the car before taking his seat to Eren's left in the back.

Irvin took his place in the front passenger seat, while Mike was behind the wheel. Hanji with a sudden burst of energy, jumped into the back and buckled herself in.

"Alright, now let's hit the ol' frog and toad!"

\---------

The car trip to the airport was a rather uneventful hour's drive; Eren would just sit and gnaw at the black belt that strapped him in his seat while the adults would chat away over trivial things. The plane ride was a little over 3 hours long, which Hanji spent a majority of the ride distracting the boy. 

Starting off with trying to get him to speak, Eren would mimic the mouth movements and make noises but was unable to manage a single word. Practicing to walk followed; it had been the current little project they have been working on for the last few weeks and was making some decent progress. With assistance, Eren was able to stand on his own, even if his legs weren't use to standing on his feet and straining his calf muscles, and hobble a few steps before collapsing. The rest of the trip was spent sitting back in their seats, Hanji would spend her time on her laptop while Eren nodded off and rested his head on the woman's shoulder until they finally landed on the tarmac back at their home base.

"Eren....Eren." Hanji cooed gently as she was nudging the boy's shoulder lightly to awaken him from his slumber. Teal eyes fluttered open and he let out a long yawn before looking at the scientist with groggy eyes. "I'm sorry Eren, but we to need to get out now."

Eren just blinked at the woman before shutting his eyes again to go back to sleep. Hanji sighed, but cracked a small grin when she began to pick the boy up and carry him out of the plane; one hand on his back while the other was placed on his butt, as if she was carrying an oversized baby.

"You're such a lazy bag of bones today." Hanji giggled, stepping down the stairs and along the pavement, trying to walk as fast as she could to catch up to the others ahead of her.

As soon as she caught up, it was Irvin to notice Hanji was struggling a little with carrying the boy. "Uhh...You need some help there Hanji? You seem to be having a little trouble carrying him."

"Nah! It's fine. He's light as all hell; it's just a bit awkward with his size."

"Jeez, why not make him walk on his own. You're babying him too much." Levi huffed.

"He was sleepy, he can't walk very far without falling over and he'd be too slow if I let him crawl."

Levi just rolled his eyes. "So where are we heading?"

"To the science department; I'm sure they'd love to meet Eren, and see Dr Yeager's tapes and notes you found."

Hanji cracked a large grin as Eren started to move about in her arms, "Oh! Now you decide to become part of the living." The woman giggled as Eren began playing with her ponytail.

The 5 wondered around the facility, Mike ditching them once he found Nanaba, leaving the other 4 to head to the science department and into the all too familiar research lab.

"Ahh, home sweet home~" Hanji chirped, eyes shining in excitement to see familiar faces of her fellow scientists going about their work in separate rooms that could be viewed by large glass windows, and all the devices and instruments she was rearing to get right into fiddling with. "Ah! I'm just so excited! I've finally got all the proper equipment to look further into Dr Yeager's studies, and see what makes Eren tick!"

Irvin gave the woman a stern look and cleared his throat before speaking. "Hanji, I know how much you want to get right into your research, but I cannot allow it."

"Huh? Why not?"

"It was requested of the higher ups that I have you on temporary leave. While we're very aware that you currently hold the most knowledge on Dr Yeager's research, you've also developed a very strong emotional attachment towards Eren, which will not only distract you from your work, but prevent us from doing any important experiments or tests."

Hanji was shocked; she couldn't believe what she was hearing coming out of Irvin. "You can't do this! I have very important data that wasn't in any of Yeager's notes."

"Which is why you will hand over any information you have and have a report written down for the department to work with. Eren will remain here for further study. While you are on leave, you are not allowed on the premises until requested." The commander simply stated.

"Bu-but Eren doesn't cope well without me!"

"He seems rather fond of Levi, and those two trainees’....Akerman, and Arlet. I'm sure their company will keep him happy."

"...Levi?" The woman squeaked as she turned her attention to the shorter male, hoping that he would be able to say something to convince Irvin differently.

The corporal closed his eyes as he let out a sigh, "There's nothing on the matter I can do about this. If it's from our superiors, then all we can do is obey the order." The corporal regretted opening his eyes again as the crestfallen look on the squad leader's face that was directed at him which could easily be compared to a little kid who had their puppy shot right in front of them.

"I see..." It was obvious that Levi was already aware of the situation before they left, and that only made it that much more difficult for Hanji to accept. As reluctant as she was, Hanji eventually squatted down and pulled Eren off her so he was sitting on the floor; the worst part was she couldn't even bring up even the faintest of smiles as she patted the boys head. "Alright Eren, I'm not going to be around anymore. I want you to be a good boy, behave yourself, and play nice with everyone. Don't worry, Levi will still be around, and so will Armin, and Mikasa." 

The boy frowned slightly at the tone being spoken at him, but it wasn't until the woman stood up and turned to leave that he was realizing what was happening and set him off. As soon as Hanji was about to exit the room, Eren lunged forward and clung onto her leg, staring up at her with a confused and hurt in his eyes.

"Tsk, not this again." Levi groaned, moving over towards them to try and pry the boy off the woman's leg. When the Corporal gripped onto the boy’s side and attempted to lift him up, Eren started shrieking; his ear piercing wails was accompanied by sobbing, tears, and violent thrashings.

Hanji was rendered speechless at the boy’s sudden reaction, and it was breaking her heart as the boys screams became louder and louder as he tried to kick Levi away just so he could stay with her.

Levi was finally able to pull the boy away from the woman, tears were pouring down Eren's face as he tried to wriggle out of the Corporal's hands, as his own were stretched out towards to woman. The next thing that left his lips were what finally made the woman break.

"HAH-III! HAHGI!"

A huge rock dropped in the pit of Hanji's stomach as the boy was trying desperately to call out her name. Breathing was starting to become difficult at the sight of the pitiful display and it wasn't long till she couldn't take it anymore.

"I'm sorry." Was all that the scientist was able to choke out as she looked the boy in the eye one last time before turning her back towards him and walked out of the room. Another high pitched shriek broke out and Hanji covered her ears as she continued down the hall; as soon as she got out, the easier it would be for her own sanity.

Back inside the room Eren eventually stopped screaming, but quickly became violent as he let out a vicious growl before thrashing again, and attempting to bite and scratch Levi. Even though the tiny Corporal easily outmatched the boy in strength, the boy's jerky movements and size was making it difficult for Levi to keep a good hold on the boy.

"Oi Irvin, a bit of help would be appreciated." Levi grunted as Eren managed to slam his elbow against his face.

The blond wasted no time into grabbing a small cloth on one of the tables nearby and tied it around the boys mouth and grabbed him from Levi, ignoring the boy's futile effort to claw and scratch the man’s back.

"Hmph! Instead of coddling the brat, she should have taught him some discipline." The corporal grumbled as he rubbed his abused cheek.

The Commander sighed, "He's very tenacious, so I wouldn't be surprised if she tried and gave up."

"So, what are we going to do with him now?"

"Put him in the cell the department has prepared for him, and wait for him to settle down before we try anything."

"That could take a while."

"Mmm, but that's all we can do for now. Now, I better get this kid into his cell; what are your plans for now?"

The short male shrugged his shoulders, "I guess grab something to eat, take a shower and lounge around in my room for a bit, since I'm not getting any time off."

"Okay, I'll be quick and I'll join you for something to eat."

Levi nodded in agreement before making his leave. He didn't realize how tired her was until he grabbed food from the dining hall, and sat down. If he wasn't so pedantic about being clean, he would just go straight to his room and crash on his bed for a very early night.

'Why the hell does everything have to be so bothersome?'


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mmmmmmmmmm, for some reason, this was harder for me to work with than I thought...Well, the second half was, I was flying with the first bit C:
> 
> Today gave me the perfect opportunity to get this chapter done, thanks to my tumblr dashboard getting spammed with FREE! posts...got nothing against it, it's a decent show, but I just didn't care much, and no fucks are really given now that it's finished. (I'm more upset that Dangan Ronpa and our beloved SNK are finishing up for the season, at least it's obvious that there's gonna be another season for them :D )

The first four days, Eren had reverted back to a dangerous, mindless animal. Several of his care takers were injured whenever they approached him from inside his cell, some even had a finger or two bitten off for foolishly thinking they would be able to touch him. Trying to sedate him was found difficult thanks to him constantly lashing out and mauling whoever got close; in the end, they had to drug his food just to get him to settle down.

By the third day, the muzzle was reintroduced.

The next two days, he had spent crying. It was like clockwork; he would aimlessly wonder around his cell, then the tears and wails would come and continue throughout the day until he tired himself out and fall asleep, and the cycle repeated once he woke up.

For three days after that, the self destructive behaviour began. Clawing along his face, arms and legs, bashing his head against the metal walls to the point that he managed to split his head open, and throwing himself against the bars at the front of the cage. Biting himself would have been added to the list, if it wasn't for the muzzle that was preventing him. The science department had taken the precaution of having his cell padded and have mittens strapped to his hands to prevent any further self harm.

By day 9, it had appeared he had accepted his fate and was complying with the scientists tests. In his mind, he had convinced himself that if he did as he was told and be a good boy, then maybe Hanji would return. The tests themselves were harmless; mostly just taking blood samples, having x-rays, and physical examinations to check on his overall health and fitness. Most of the staff were kind to him, Armin and Mikasa would visit every few days, and due to being put under the authority to supervise, Levi was present every day to make sure everything was running smoothly.

The days progressed, and while Eren still went along with the tests, the novelty of everyone's kindness and presence was wearing off and was quickly withdrawing into his shell. Whenever someone would pass him, he would call out for Hanji, which would only earn him a sad look from whomever he directed the name to.

When day 13 rolled around, he had stopped eating the food given to him.

At the end of day 14, whatever hope he had in his usually lively eyes were gone.

By day 15, he had just given up.

He would lay lifelessly in his cage, preferring the cold metal surface over the bedding provided in the corner. Blank, glassy eyes would stare out into space, and the bags under his eyes were a clear indication that he had stopped sleeping at some point. This had caused a stir throughout the lab, especially when he didn't show the slightest reaction or response when they picked him up and brought him out of his cell to sit him on the examination table to figure out what was wrong with him.

It didn't take long for Levi to realised what the problem was, and knew that something needed to be done. Requesting a day off and one phone call later lead the corporal to sitting in a small cafe' in the town about an hour's drive away from the base.

"God damn it, you have serious tardiness issues." Levi grumbled as he took a mouthful of tea. Cold grey eyes leered at the brunette who was bundled up in a thick jacket, scarf, and mittens to stay warm from the unusually cold weather outside.

"Sorry! I was going to get here earlier but then I realised how cold it was and had to rug up a bit more, it's bloody freezing!" Hanji whined with a shiver as she took her seat at the table Levi had claimed in the tiny cafe'. "I'm rather surprised to get a call from you; would'a thought you'd be happy that I was gone."

"I just wanted to take a day off for a breather, and since you have a lot of free time on your hands, I thought it would be good to catch up in one of our old haunting grounds."

Hanji snorted "Naw, you do care!"

The male shot the woman a glare as he took another drink from his cup. "Good to see you're doing well."

"Pfft, you kidding? I bawled my friggin eyes out as soon as I got home!" Hanji laughed, even with her brutal honesty, it was easy to tell her tone of voice was forced. Eventually her laughter died down and her expression changed to sad and tired. "I've managed to keep myself occupied in a way to distract myself. So, who's in charge of Eren now?"

"Ilse Langer."

"That's good. If there's anyone else I would trust him with, it's Ilse...How is he?"

Levi was quiet for a bit, trying to think of the best way to put Eren's behaviour without worrying the woman. "He misses you."

"I see..."

The two were quiet, and stayed that way for a while. Hanji would fiddle with the pompoms on ends of her scarf, not able to find anything to really say, while Levi continued to drink his tea. Once he had finished, Levi placed the cup on the table and chose to finally break the silence.

"Do you really need that scarf?"

"Huh? That's a random question, why you ask?"

"I just think there's a certain someone who might need it more than you do right now."

Hanji's eyebrow quirked up, not following what he meant. Even after the short male decided to give her an 'Are you fucking serious?' look, it still took her a while for what he was talking about clicked. "Oh! Right." Hanji chuckled as she unwrapped the colourful scarf from her neck and handed it over to the tiny Corporal. "What makes you think my scarf will do anything?"

"I know for a fact that you've had that gaudy abomination for a few years; so your stink will be all over it. If I give it to the brat, maybe having something with your familiar scent will help him cope better with the whole separation anxiety."

Yet again, Hanji was rendered speechless, completely stunned by the others words. Levi noticed Hanji looking at him with her eyes all widened and bug-eyed, which bothered him.

"What?"

The shocked expression quickly changed to a mischievous grin as she let out a small, high pitched giggle. "I'm sorry, but it's just so cute seeing how you're looking after Eren even when you keep trying to look like you don't care and act professional!"

A hard kick to the shin, and accidently smashing her knee on the table was all it took to get the woman to stop laughing and tend to her abused leg.

"Stop making up idiotic assumptions. We're undergoing a very delicate situation with our neighbouring countries, and if all hell breaks loose, we may need him to help prevent anything serious from happening, and we can't do that if he's sulking like a snot nosed runt who might need to be fed through a tube with how he's behaving."

"Okay! Jesus, you seriously can't take a little joke." Hanji pouted as she rubbed her shin but soon paused. "...Wait, he's not eating?!"

–-

"Oi brat, you awake?" Levi asked as he entered the laboratory and headed straight to the cage that contained the person the question was directed at. Looking inside, he was greeted by eery, tired turquoise eyes staring blankly at him; if it wasn't for his chest rising and falling, the kid could have easily been mistaken for dead just from how still he was. "Of course you are, stupid question.

No response.

With a tired sigh, Levi unlocked the cage. "You know, I decided to catch up with Hanji today."

This time there was movement. It was only a blink and eyes looking up at him, but it was still a response.

"Still annoying as usual, but a bit quiet. It was somewhat nice to actually catch up, surprisingly." Levi mumbled as he pulled out the scarf from his jacket's pocket, "She also wanted to give you this."

The scarf was dangling in front of Eren, who seemed to have no interest in the woolen article of clothing. The corporal then moved the scarf inside the cage and brought it up to Eren's nose. It was a slow reaction, but once Eren actually smelled the scarf, he immediately perked up and snatched the scarf from the others hand so he could get a better smell for confirmation.

It was a rather bizarre sight, but considering that the kid had been brought up thinking he was an animal, it just seemed normal watching him sniffing the scarf like a dog. Eventually he tore the scarf away from his face, glanced over at Levi before picking himself up from his spot and moved back to his bedding, where he curled up, scarf held in his arms protectively, and soon closed his eyes and finally fell asleep for the first time in several days.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was rather interesting to write. Had to write a lot for a character who has a very small amount of screen time in the manga…She doesn't get enough love in the fandom, so I thought I'd put her in with an important roll UwU I was hoping they put her in the anime, since her scene I think was PRETTY DAMN IMPORTANT! But they didn't...maybe the animators are rearranging it like they did with the invasion of wall Rose and the trainee days, who knows?

"So, what are the results?" Irvin asked the scientist who had presented herself in front of the commanders desk; the freckle faced woman shuffled through her papers as a quick double check the research notes.

"Well sir, the boy appears to be healthy, though he still needs to eat more to be at a more reasonable weight for his BMI to be ideal. We also had a bit of difficulty with his behavior earlier on, but he's settled down now, and has been very compliant as of a few days ago."

"And what have the blood samples shown?"

"Even after some extensive research in such a short period, we've made about as much progress as Zoe had. Everything seems normal, not even the slightest mutation or foreign substance has been detected."

"How about his regenerative abilities?"

The woman paused, eyebrows furrowed which seemed to already tell the commander what she was about to say. "Well, we already have evidence thanks to the photo's supplied by Zoe, and you're already an eye witness of this power which we think is more than enough to work with."

Irvin sighed, "Well yes, but we need information on how quick his healing capabilities are, and how much damage his body can withstand."

"But sir, what you're asking for is inhumane! Do you really expect us to mutilate a living human being, a child no less?"

"The moment he transformed into that beast, it was the end of that boy's humanity. It's not like I want you to kill him, we need to know how fast he can heal and how much damage he can take. We need this vital information, and we have yet to figure out what triggers his transformation."

"But..." the woman sighed, there was no point arguing with the man in front of her, he always needed to have the last say on these matters.

"I honestly expected better from you, Ilse. The reason why I put you in charge is because I know you're just as passionate for science as Hanji; but I know the bond between the two would get in the way of her doing anything that would remotely harm Eren in the slightest." Irvin stated firmly.

"That's a completely normal response from any human being. Plus severing a limb could put the boy into shock or even worse."

"He's already lost an arm once, and he turned out fine... This is an important experiment, and the higher up's need to know as much as they can at the soonest convenience. If you do not wish to continue the project, I will respect your decision, but someone else will take over your position."

Ilse was quiet, mauling over everything and weighing out the pro's and con's of dropping out of the experiment, once she finally made up her mind, she gave the blond male a stern look. "I'll continue the research, this is my big break and this could greatly benefit our country's military warfare."

"Excellent, is that all you have for the report?"

Ilse nodded.

"Alright, you are dismissed."

The woman gave the Commander a salute before exiting the office and headed straight back towards the lab, where she walked into two reoccurring faces playing around with her charge.

"Alright Eren, left foot...now right foot." Mikasa said gently as the boy had his hands tightly gripped in her's. Armin was on his knees with his hands on Eren's calves as he helped the boy lift his feet in order to make the boy walk. Eren seemed rather nervous as he watched his feet being forced to lift off the ground and moved forward, but allowed the teens to continue.

"Good boy. Alright Armin, let go and let's see how he goes."

Armin did as the girl asked and released the boys legs. Mikasa stepped back and encouraged Eren to walk forward; the actions were awkward but he managed to shuffle his feet along the ground to move forward a few steps.

Mikasa let out a hum in satisfaction, "You're doing great! Now I'm going to let go and step back, and I want you to walk towards Armin." Whether the instructions actually registered in Eren's head was a complete mystery, but there was no time for that as the girl twisted Eren around and let go.

Eren let out a loud whine as his balance was disrupted and he stretched his arms out in a way to stabilise himself.

"Alright Eren, come here!" Armin called out, making gestured to tell the boy to walk over to him. Arms still stretched out to his sides, Eren hobbled towards the blond for a few steps until his legs gave out and collapsed.

The two trainee's chucked as the boy on the ground let out a groan and stepped forward to squat next to him.

"That was a good effort, much better than last time." Armin commented, patting the brunette on the shoulder while Mikasa decided to playfully pinch his cheek.

"Yep, you've improved a lot since when we started."

Eren let out a loud sneeze, making the teens laugh as they continued to praise him.

"Well, seems like you three are having fun." Ilse finally decided to make her presence known, an amused smile on her face.

"Ah! Ms Langer, how are you?" Armin was the first to acknowledge the scientist.

"Very well, Mr Artlet. How are you two going?"

"Fine, we just thought that while you guys were on lunch break, we'd give Eren some company."

The scientist chuckled, "Of course, you three seem very close...Which makes it hard to break to you guys, but just for the time being, I need to ban you two from coming into the lab and seeing Eren. It's only temporary, but there's going to be some pretty excessive tests that Eren will need plenty of time for recovery."

Mikasa's eyebrows furrowed, not liking the tone the elder was speaking in,"It's not going to be anything too bad, right?"

"I wouldn't worry too much about it, his safety is our main priority." The two teens seemed to relax at the woman's words.

Eren who was starting to get bored and was in dire need for attention, gave a particularly hard headbutt to Mikasa's jaw, causing the girl to back away and clench her chin in her hand.

"Oww."

"Eren, that wasn't very nice." Armin scolded the boy, even though it fell onto deaf ears as the boy was too caught up in his own amusement with a cheeky grin and giggling.

"Okay, someone's a little stirred up right now, I think it's time to say goodbye."

"Mmmm, that's probably a good idea; we still need to get lunch anyway. Alright Eren, I'll see you when these tests are done." Armin said as he gave the brunette a hug.

Mikasa, after soothing her sore jaw, leaned in and pressed her nose against Eren's and gave him a quick Eskimo kiss, which Eren returned with enthusiasm. "Be a good boy now."

The two cadets stood up and gave Eren one last wave before exiting the lab.

Ilse gave out a tired sigh, before glancing down at the boy who was still sitting on the ground. "You're very well loved, you know that."

Eren just looked up at her, expression blank.

"Well, we may as well get started." the woman mumbled as she picked Eren off of the ground and placed him on the examination table, where he sat obediently while the scientist wandered around the room and returned to the table with a pen, notebook, timer, and a small razor blade. "Okay Eren, we're just going to start off with some small little cuts, nothing big." Ilse said, even though Eren wouldn't understand what she was on about.

She grabbed onto Eren's wrist and lifted his arm, the razor blade was held in her opposite hand and brought the small blade to the boy's arm, where she lightly dragged it along, a small shallow cut opening up along the blade's track. Eren winced slightly at the sudden sharp sting, but stayed relatively still.

The cut was only as long as Ilse's thumb nail, and as soon as she removed the blade, she grabbed the timer to see how quick the small cut would heal. Within 10 minutes of patiently waiting with no signs of healing, she decided to make another cut, this time deeper. The act kept repeating where the cut will not heal, and she would make another cut deeper than the last until she decided that the cuts were possibly too small or insignificant for the body to consider they would need immediate attention.

She dropped the blade and wrote down the results in her journal while Eren, who finally had his arm back, was licking up the small streams of blood that was trickling along his arm. Ilse let out an audible sigh as she tapped her pen along the lined paper of the notebook, debating whether or not she should go ahead with her next idea. Once she finally made up her mind, Ilse removed herself from the table, this time returning with a scalpel, grabbed onto Eren's wrist and placed his hand on the table, scalpel positioned next to his pinky finger.

Breathing heavily through her nose, Ilse looked up at Eren. Turquoise eyes were found focused back on her, full of curiously and innocence, which made the scientist let out a shuddered breath.

"Oh god...Please forgive me."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, how is everyone coping with the end of the season? I think I shot myself in the foot by investing all my time in shows that ended at the same time XD I think it's gonna be a while before we have another awesome anime season like the one we just had ;w; we're just gonna have to wait patiently till 2014/2015, or go utterly mad until season 2 finally comes.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh god, I didn't think it would take me this long to update...I've been really busy getting all my assignments in since I'm in my last few weeks of my course for the year, also Pokemon...0w0
> 
> Sorry about that, and I'll give the heads up that updates will be pretty slow for a while because even when I'm done with my course, I have the tedious task of getting all my junk together since I'll be moving back home for the summer, so please be patient.

"Ymir, are you all right?" Christa asked as the two walked through the cafeteria to take a seat with their friends who had already claimed a table.

The taller girl pulled a face of displeasure as she had one hand to balance the tray holding her lunch, while the other was rubbing her lower back. "I think I might have pulled something...Whoever said that you don't get back pains until you're a lot older is a dirty liar, I seriously have the back of an 80 year old."

"At least you're done for the day so you can rest."

"Thank fucking Christ."

The two made it to the table and were greeted by their fellow cadets as they both took a seat and joined into what ever the conversation was.

The current topic was music.

"I seriously have problems finding any decent music lately. The radio has gone down the shitter since they just keep playing the same damn songs over and over again and I don't really have any other resources to look any up." Reiner groaned as he picked at his vegetables with his fork.

"I know what you mean, remember Ke$ha's song, TicTok? They whipped that horse till it was dead and kept flogging it. It was like TicTok, some other song, TicTok, another song, TicTok, TicTok, TicTok, another song TicTok." Sasha commented.

"Yeah, it was alright but then they kinda abused it to the point you can't stand it any more." Bert spoke up with a nervous laugh.

"The parody was better...How come there's never any good hip hop or rap?"

"Because you listen to all the mainstream mind rotting garbage Jean. 360 and Bliss n Eso are pretty good." Ymir said, glancing boredly at the two toned haired boy.

"Never heard of them."

"Meh, both are from Australia and while they do have songs about partying and mention sex, drugs and all that crap, a lot of their stuff is a lot more relatable to everyday things. I'd recommend Killer, Falling and flying, Where the wild things are, Boys like you, Reflections, Sea is rising...Personally I like Family affair purely because their Grandma sounds awesome and she's officially my role model."

"...Wait, what? Grandma?"

"She don't take shit from anybody!"

The group continued talking, topics swapping between serious discussions, and just plain stupid until Annie finally arrived, seeming bored as usual as she took a seat next to Armin. "...I heard something rather interesting about what's been going on with that boy you two like spending time with."

"Pardon?"

"I overheard some of the staff talking about the tests in the lab they're keeping the kid you and Ackerman like to hang out with. Apparently they've been cutting up the kid."

"WHAT?!" Armin squawked, as horror was clearly seen on his face.

Mikasa shot the blond girl a glare as her usually calm expression darkened. "How long ago did you hear this?"

Annie shrugged her shoulders, "About 10 minutes ago when I passed by."

In an instant, Mikasa had moved herself away from the table and stormed off to the laboratory that Eren was currently being held in. Intense anger had clouded her her mind that she didn't realise there was someone in front of her until she walked straight into them.

"Huh? Oi! Watch where you're going you st-oh, Ackerman?" The male was rather surprised to find that Mikasa was the one to almost knocked him over.

Mikasa seemed to have snapped out of her anger induced trance and looked up at the middle aged blond. "Hannes? Ah, sorry about that."

"It's fine, you seemed to be in a rush to get somewhere, care to tell me why?"

"...Hannes, you're currently Eren's care taker, right?"

"Yep, glad I'm in charge of him now that he's not trying to kill everyone." The older chuckled.

"Then is it true that they've been dissecting him?"

"...We've been doing some physical tests, but nothing THAT extreme."

Mikasa's shoulders drooped as she began to relax. "So he's fine?"

"Of course, we've made his safety our top priority."

"Thank god," The girl sighed in relief. "Sorry for wasting your time Hannes, I should head back."

"It's fine, and tell Armin I said 'hi'." The blond chuckled as he waved the younger off before heading back to the lab to check up on how his charge was going, only to find a sight he really wish he hadn't. "OI! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!" Hannes snapped at the man who was currently in the middle of hacking off Eren's arm from just below the shoulder. Said boy was strapped down on the table, cloth on his mouth, tears pouring out of his eyes, and thrashing about in his confines while he let out muffled screams as his arm was practically being ripped and shredded with a dull blade.

"Just doing my job, Sir." The man stated simply as he waved one of his hands around, his pinky and the tip of his ring finger were missing from one of the few incidents from the first week.

Hannes had to wonder what part of Ilse even considered to allow the man to continue on with the tests. She was aware of the injury, and the fact that it was Eren who had bitten them off during the first few days, and she was oh so very aware that her fellow scientist happened to have serious anger issues and a rather vindictive personality which had produced several complications in the past that Hannes was grateful to have not been around for.

"Your job my arse, you have proper equipment for this and I find you using a fucking knife. I bet you didn't even bother using any anaesthetic."

The other male just rolled his eyes.

Hannes moved over to the table and removed Eren from his confines and picked the boy up who clung to him like a koala even though his left arm had received enough damage for it to be rendered limp and useless until his healing abilities start to kick in. "I'm in charge of this boy's safety, so it's my responsibly to report you for inappropriate behaviour and misconduct."

The scientist scoffed as he crossed his arms over his chest. "The little shit deserves it."

The middle aged man chose to ignore the other as he carried Eren to his cage, helping the boy to sit up and gave him a cup of water to drink before bundling him in his blanket. Eren flinched every so often when the blanket would rub against his wound, but he seemed to have settled down, and used his one good arm to grab onto the scarf he deemed to be his prized possession.

"There you go, just rest up and you'll be good in no time. I'll go deal with the mean man." Hannes spoke as if he was speaking to a young child, which he found the most effective way to talk to the boy. Very shortly after, Eren dozed off, leaving the man to go back to his other duties. As Hannes was about to leave, he leered at the other man before exiting the room to go report to Ilse.

The scientist huffed as the man left, and as soon as he was out of sight, walked over to the cage, and smacked a metal tray that was sitting on the table with his knife into the bars of the cage, spooking Eren who jolted awake from the sudden sound.

"Look at you, you mangy mongrel. Everyone thinks you're so special, but you're nothing more than a dog that needs to be put down." The man growled as he moved to the front of the cage and opened the door. Eren did his best to shuffle himself into the back of the cage as the scientist entered and gave a hard stomp to his face, causing the boy to yelp. "Pathetic little shit, that's all you are." he snarled as he continued to stomp on the boy, which he stopped after a few minutes and took notice of the scarf. "Why are you so fixated on that ugly thing anyway? This you're little treasure or something?"

Eren weakly lifted his head, large teal eyes glaring at him while blood was gushing out of his broken nose as his grip on the scarf tightened.

Another hard stomp landed on Eren's arm, forcing his to let go of the knitted piece of clothing and was in the scientists clutches while the boy was crying out in pain.

"My god, the person who gave you this has no taste. Maybe I'll take this home and chuck it in the fireplace to rid the world of this abomination."

The man smirked as Eren was feebly trying to shuffle himself closer to him as if he was able to get the scarf back, only to get another kick in the face before the scientist got out of the cage, taking Hanji's scarf with him.

Eren started to panic, even in his weakened state, as he began screaming and carrying on. Shortly after he began hyperventilating before his anger began to flare up and he brought his hand up to his mouth and viciously bite into it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, people have been going nuts about chapter 50...I have no idea what they're talking about, what chapter 50? (is in complete denial :'D)
> 
> Even if it's only a one off thing, or if it's just a few small appearances from now on, I just had mighty need to put Hannes in
> 
> and you can also find what inspired this story if you're observant enough...pfft, I've put it in a pretty obvious place XD


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Appears in a puff of smoke*
> 
> *Updates*
> 
> *Back flips out window*
> 
> *falls 2 stories and splats onto concrete*

Ah lunch time; the one time of the day Levi could actually tolerate idiocy, purely because he can drink his tea and eat without having to take responsibility for anyone being a moron.

The short Corporal had taken a seat at the table that was currently occupied by Auroro, Petra, Gunther, and Erd, who had greeted their superior and continued on with their conversation which Levi would occasionally pitch his opinion in. It was calming to be with the few people he would consider friends, it took his mind off the current events that had plagued his mind; particularly the fact that he had to supervise a bunch of scientists using a teenage boy as a slab of meat to be butchered.

Plate clean of food, all the man had to do was finish off his cup of tea and then he had to file in a report to Irvin. It was then the world decided to tell him 'fuck you' as the sudden sound that sounded like an explosion, and a violent tremor began to shake the room; causing his cup to lose it's balance on the table and tip over, spilling whatever was left of the hot beverage onto his lap and stained his pristine white pants.

If it were any other situation, Levi would probably be foaming at the mouth over the spillage, but there was no time to dwell on the situation as an alarm blared throughout the building, clearly indicating that they were under attack. The 5 quickly stood up and made their way out of the cafeteria, running down the hallway, full of distressed soldiers and staff who were obstructing the way, making it difficult for them to get through to investigate the situation.

It came as a surprise to the group when they found a large portion of the hallway and what had once been a science lab obliterated into nothing but rubble, scraps of metal, and damaged equipment that managed to survive whatever it was that caused this mess. Vapor had obstructed the floor, and there was the sound of a low rumbling that certainly came from something living.

"W-what the hell did this?" Auroro gulped, now wishing he had a weapon of any form for protection; it was no surprise to find that the others were just as tense as he was, even when they tried to cover it up with brave faces.

"...Shit. I think I know what's happening." Levi growled, cautiously moving forward along the wall for further inspection.

"You think that kid had done this?" Erd asked, taking after the Corporal, the others pursuing soon after.

"Only explanation I can think of." Levi muttered lowly as he came to the large gap of what was once a part of the wall. He quickly raised his arm up, signalling his subordinates to stop, followed by the hand gesture to tell them to get low before peering outside the wall.

Just has he had expected, the familiar sight of the giant came into view, though the steam that he was producing was making it slightly harder for the soldier to get a proper visual, but he could still see what was happening. Eren was sitting on the ground, a deep rumble reverberating from his chest. Levi could easily make out that there was someone caught in the beasts mouth, head between teeth as the person was screaming and thrashing around in a futile attempt to be released. Eren tossed his head back, opening his enormous jaw as the person dropped into his mouth, and snapped his jaw shut, causing an audible crunch that even made Levi's hand twitch slightly at the sickening sound as blood spurting from between the giant's teeth.

The Corporal had then expected for the boy-turned-monster to begin throwing a tantrum and go on a violent rampage, but was surprised to find that Eren had remained docile and remained seated in the mess that he had created. Taking a deep breath, Levi decided to get closer to Eren, hoping that the beast would still be able to recognise him.

"Oi, Eren!"

Eren turned his head towards the man, beady green eyes stared straight into stern grey before the beast's pointed ears drooped and expression changed to something Levi didn't expect Eren to be able to produce in his current state.

"Tsk, you look like a kicked puppy, you damned brat."

The giant let out a whine in reply.

The sound of soldiers could be heard running down the hallway as a few men and women armed with guns ran through the hole, all taken back by Eren's new form and Levi's close proximity to the titan. The group were in a panic at the sight and raised their guns towards the giant.

"C-Corporal, get back!" a female soldier cried out.

"Idiots, stand do-" Levi was cut off by the sounds of guns firing, forcing him to move away just in time for Eren to react.

The guns did nothing but aggravate Eren as he let out a mighty roar before pushing himself up and began attacking the soldiers, swatting his hands and stomping his feet at the tiny humans. More soldiers appeared and began shooting which did nothing but make the giant more hostile as his actions became more rampant.

Levi was barking at the fools to cease their fire, only to be ignored and watched as soldiers were smacked into walls and crushed under Eren's huge feet. The only people that were smart enough to obey their superiors orders was was his faithful squad who managed to get away before the carnage began.

"Sir, what are we going to do?!" Gunther asked, clearly shaken by the whole ordeal in front of them; they were soldiers, not monster slayers!

"I've got a plan, but I need to find and talk to Irvin, and hopefully we can fix this mess before the media finds out and makes this public. I need you four to stay here and try and control the situation, alright?"

"Sir!" The four barked as they saluted the Corporal.

"Be careful, I expect you all to return alive."

The four nodded as they turned around and headed back to the mess they were lucky enough to escape from, while Levi made a run towards the commanders office, in hopes that was where Irvin would be.

–-

"Who are you to tell me how to live my life? Coz I wont give this up. These are my shoes, my view, my cue to say I do give a fuck. And pretty soon I'm a bloomin' it'll be alright. Every day's another chance to ignite, coz I'm addicted, I'm addicted, I'm addicted to that universal feeling called life!~" Hanji chirped along to the song that was playing on the radio as she made another stroke of the brush in her hand onto the canvas.

Since Hanji currently had a lot of free time on her hands, she thought she'd pick up her old hobby of painting. She's pretty good at it if she'd say so herself, maybe a bit out of practice since she was struggling mixing the right colours but hey, she hasn't had time to bring out her artistic side in years. Her current masterpiece was a simple painting of a duck. Why a duck? She doesn't really know, it was just the first subject that came to mind.

Being as delicate as possible, Hanji was just giving the finishing details on the eyes, the little white shines to give it life. As soon as she placed the paintbrush in the terps, the woman jumped at the sudden sound of the phone ringing. Not even bothering to wipe of the paint on her hands as she grabbed the phone off the charger and answered.

"Hello?"

"Hanji, it's Levi."

"LEVI! It's been a while. How are you?"

"Hanji, this isn't really the time to-"

"Hey, so I decided to pick up painting again. I'm currently working on a duck!"

"That's great, but-"

"Y'know, I've been kinda lonely lately, and the painting has made me consider getting a duck myself."

"This is not the time to be-"

"Do you thing Cecil is an appropriate name for a duck?"

"HANJI!"

The woman stopped her yacking when Levi boomed at the other end.

"I need you to turn the TV on, now."

"Huh, why? This is pretty random, especially since it's coming from you."

Levi groaned, "Just turn on the fucking TV and put it on the news."

Hanji removed her head from the phone and moved around the room to fish for the remote that had wedged itself between two cushions on the couch. Turning the TV on, she quickly flicked through the channels until she came across a news broadcast currently playing live footage. Brown eyes widened in complete shock at the images being displayed on the screen; Hanji was rendered speechless and had almost dropped the phone.

"Hey, you still there?"

Hanji snapped out of her stupor and quickly moved the communication device back up to her ear.

"WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU GUYS DONE?!"

"We really don't have time for that right now, but we're bringing a chopper to pick you up right now. We'll inform you of what's going on as soon as you get here. You're the only o-" Levi was cut off and was replaced by the dial tone that droned on.

With a shaky breath, Hanji hung up and tossed the phone on the couch, followed by her plopping down on the cushiony seat as she continued to watch the broadcast that would occasionally return back to the reporter, and back to the footage.

"Oh God Eren, what have they done to you?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wonder how many people think calling a duck Cecil was 'Welcome to night vale' inspired XD it actually came from the internet password at my sister's old place that was 'Ceciltheduck'. I dunno why, I just thought it would be something random and stupid that I could see Hanji doing


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I
> 
> AM
> 
> SOOOOOOOO
> 
> SORRY!
> 
> I never intended to take a fucking age (almost 2 months) to get this up ;_; *shot*
> 
> But yeah, it being this time of year, things have been hectic. A lot of stuff had gotten in the way, but for most part, I was just lacking motivation, and hit a writers block like a brick wall...but I've gotten so far with this, and it's almost finished that it would be a waste!

Just as Levi had mentioned over the phone, a military helicopter had landed itself in the middle of the street in front of Hanji's home. Curious faces would peak out the windows of their houses, and those out for their daily jog, and walking their dogs were gawking at the sight. It's not everyday a military chopper makes itself at home in such a quiet suburb.

Wasting no time at all, Hanji quickly jumped into the aircraft, and squawked at the pilot to get back to base as fast as they could. The phone call from Levi that came from out of the blue, and the live broadcast of Eren going berserk on TV had put the woman on edge, and the stress of it all made the flight back seem agonizingly slow. Once they finally arrived, Hanji looked down to see the familiar behemoth that was Eren thrashing about as the tiny forms of people were running around and shooting at him. Hanji tried her best to restrain herself and waited for the helicopter to finally land, and was greeted by Irvin, Levi, Ilse, and Hannes.

Hanji didn't hesitate to immediately rip into them.

"Alright, I need answers and I need them now!" Hanji snapped. Ilse and Hannes were taken back by the usually chipper woman's angry outburst while Levi and Irvin were as stoic as ever.

No one seemed like they were willing to say anything until Irvin sighed, assuming he was going to be the one to say it. "Right. As you've already witnessed on the way here, we managed to trigger Eren's transformation; we're not a hundred percent sure what it was exactly, but Hannes here had said that one of the scientists, Dallas Trotman, who was a part the research team had been abusing Eren as what was suspected to most likely be a vendetta from an incident involving the two in the first week had managed to do it."

"I caught him out on it earlier today, he was still in the lab when I was going to report him for misconduct. I dunno what he did but he somehow managed to make the kid turn into that thing making a mess of the base."

"Where is he?" Hanji growled, "Where is that bastard?"

"Dead." Levi stated. "I managed to see Eren eat him, after that he remained docile and probably would have stayed that way if a bunch of idiots hadn't start shitting themselves, and got trigger happy."

"So what do you want me to do exactly? I don't know if he would recognize me while he's like that."

"I know for a face that he can register what's going on. Before he went ballistic, he responded to me calling out to him; acted like a typical brat who got caught doing something stupid. If he reacted to me going off at him, I'm sure he'd do the same to you; you're the closest thing he's had to a mother so he'd respond to you better than me."

"Right...So what exactly are we gonna do?"

"Only plan we have is to get everyone to fall back and get you to talk to him."

"I doubt he'd hear me; do we have a megaphone I could use?"

"Do bears shit in the forest?" Levi muttered.

Irvin cleared his throat, "Alright, Hanji, I want you and Ilse to go get everything you need, Levi, Hannes, and I will try and call everyone back. This is our only chance to control him, otherwise we may have to resort to explosives."

The four nodded at the commanders instructions, the two women quickly made their way towards the building in in search for the megaphone, while the men quickly made their way to the battlefield to call off the attack and control the situation that had already destroyed a decent portion of the military base.

"This is all my fault." Ilse mumbled as the two females raided the equipment room.

"Huh?"

"If I hadn't let Dallas be apart of the research team, this wouldn't have happened."

"You had good intentions, and he was the dickhead who started this mess. It's not like you knew he would have acted the way he did-Ah! There you are!" Hanji called out as she pulled the megaphone off the hooks that it had been placed in. "Alright, now we just need to-"

Hanji was cut off but the room beginning to shake violently, followed by the wall on the opposite side of the room falling through as a giant foot smashed through it, causing both women to scream, more out of shock than fear. As soon as the foot removed itself, both woman were able to settle down as their hearts thumped hard against their chests from the fright, and made their way to the gaping hole to get outside. Taking a shaky breath, Hanji ventured outside, into the chaos as soldiers were scattered about, and told Ilse to stay back in case something went wrong.

Levi managed to locate the scientist, and told Hanji to try and get Eren's attention, followed by calling out to the other soldiers to fall back. The soldiers obeyed the order, and ceased firing so that they could find somewhere to take cover, while the two made their way towards Eren, who was currently stomping away at the men and women who were still shooting at him.

It was now or never; Hanji turned on the megaphone and brought it to her mouth.

"EREN! STOP THIS RIGHT NOW!"

The beast stopped his stomping and turned his head towards the duo. This pleased Hanji as he was still in the right state of mind to be able to recognize when he was being addressed. The solders halted as they watched the titan respond to the person with the megaphone.

"EREN, IT'S HANJI! REMEMBER ME?"

Eren remained still for a moment before moving towards Hanji and Levi, stopping in front of him before crouching down.

Hanji lowered the megaphone and looked into the beady green eyes as she placed her hand on his large, hooked nose. "It's alright Eren, I'm here now."

The giant appeared to remain docile, appeared being the keyword, as Eren backed his face away slightly and opened his enormous mouth. Levi clicked onto the giants intentions were as he moved quickly to grab Hanji to pull her away, but was too slow as the jaw snapped closed over the two. Standing back up, Eren looked at the other soldiers who were paralyzed in fear before turning his attention away and began running in the opposite direction of the base.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have mixed feeling about this chapter :\ probably doesn't help that it has been rotting in my laptop for a while...
> 
> Anyways, think of this as an early present!
> 
> I hope everyone had a fantastic and safe holiday!


End file.
